My wife and I have decided to challenge ourselves to ride in this year’s Pan Mass Challenge, August 5th and 6th. We have a coworker who was looking for teammates, and it was something that we had heard of in years past, but we weren’t able to for various reasons. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a ride across south eastern Massachusetts, with thousands of cyclists participating. It raises money for the Jimmy Fund (Dana Farber Cancer Institute). Aaron lost his grandfather to cancer last summer, and I have two relatives (my uncle and my cousin) who are recent cancer survivors, and countless others that have touched our lives. We also lost a good friend this past fall, and while not due to cancer, it’s left us with a recent perspective on loss; out of that I think we have both felt we want to… how to put it, be engaged with others, give back more. We know many have lost family or friends to cancer, have loved ones currently battling the disease, or are themselves affected by cancer. Our ride doesn’t seem like that big a challenge in that perspective – we are doing ~150something miles over two days, which means we have a lot of riding to do beforehand to get us ready for it. We are not super fit going in, and we haven’t done something like this before, but we know it will keep us motivated…

We also have a lot of fundraising to do. Between us, we must raise $5,000, something neither of us has done before and certainly something that sounds pretty daunting to us at this point.

The slogan for the PMC if you’ve ever seen the stickers is “Closer by the mile,” and based on that, we’re asking for sponsorship by the mile too. Just a few miles will make a big difference! Your gift can be tax deductable, and if your employer offers matching, that works too. We’re ‘virtually’ on the starting line right now… even if you can’t sponsor us by the mile, any donation will help. We know that the Dana Farber Cancer Institute will use your donation well, as the Institute has helped countless children and adult cancer patients in our area, and furthers research which can help cancer patients around the world.

To sponsor our ride, you can donate to us online:

https://www.pmc.org/egifts/default.asp

For our rider codes: TV0015 for Tasha, AO0027 for Aaron (me). You can select both of us and it will automatically split your donation also. Let us know if you have also been affected by cancer or know someone who has, as it will make our ride even more meaningful to us.

Finally, while only one route remains open for riders (the others are full) the PMC is looking for thousands of volunteers for a variety of tasks – photographers, medical, rest stops, logistics, you name it and they probably have a need. So if you want to cheer us and many others on in person, volunteer and we’ll see you there! I understand it can be quite inspirational, even from the sidelines.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you will support us, and the Jimmy Fund (Dana Farber Cancer Institute)
Tasha and Aaron