2010 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge

Those of you who have sponsored me on previous Pan-Mass Challenge charity rides have my profound thanks once again.

On the other hand, if you have not sponsored my ride, this year’s 2010 Pan-Mass Challenge would be the perfect time to start. Why? Read on…

This year, you can both sponsor my ride and not spend a lot of money doing it, because I really need your help. This year I’m trying to get 100 people to sponsor me, so even a $5 donation will help me reach my goal. If you can afford a five dollar donation, please consider it, because it will really help me out.

As you probably know, the PMC is a two-day, 200-mile bike ride across Massachusetts that raises money for life-saving cancer research and treatment via the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Over 5000 people ride, over 3000 people volunteer, and a quarter million people sponsor riders each year, and 100 percent of every dollar goes directly to the Jimmy Fund, which has earned 9 consecutive 4-star ratings from Charity Navigator.

Since I began riding the PMC in 2001, outpatient visits and infusions at Dana-Farber have more than doubled, and the number of clinical trials available to their patients have increased by 80 percent. Thanks to the help of people who sponsor riders, the PMC provided the single largest donation in Dana-Farber’s 7-year, “Mission Possible” campaign, enabling them to reach their billion-dollar fundraising goal a year early. Construction is well under way on Dana-Farber’s new, 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care, which will open next year. These are all the direct results of the quarter billion dollars raised by PMC riders.

On top of that, 2010 marks a big milestone for me: this will be my tenth Pan-Mass Challenge. I hope you’ll help me celebrate a decade of cycling -- and raising over $60,000 for cancer research—by sponsoring me this year.

Finally, in order to put the “challenge” back into the Pan-Mass Challenge, this year I’m going to do a true “pan-Massachusetts” ride for the first time. While the PMC covers 200 miles over two days, it only goes two-thirds of the way across the state. So in order to ride all the way across Massachusetts, I’ll be biking an extra hundred miles through the Berkshire hills on the day before the PMC kicks off, making it an arduous three-day, 300-mile expedition.

You can see me talk a little more about these goals in the video that follows at the end of this post.

I hope those are enough reasons for you to consider putting five bucks in my hat.

Remember, with my 100-sponsor goal in mind, even a tiny donation will make a meaningful contribution to my goal. Please make a donation to the Jimmy Fund at this web page:
 
       http://ornoth.PMCrider.com/

And if you want to read about this year’s training or look through my writeups, photos, and videos from previous years, those can all be found via http://www.ornoth.com/bicycling/

Please help out. And thanks!

Watch on YouTube