Billy Starr
Organization: Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC)
Cause: Funding Cancer Research
Personal Background/History: Just as Billy Starr was preparing to graduate from college and in the midst of charting a course for his career, he lost his mother, uncle, and cousin to cancer. In the months that followed, Billy would rise before dawn on numerous occasions, wake himself by jumping in the pool, and then set off by bike from his dad’s house in Newton, Massachusetts. His goal was to cycle 120 miles to Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, in time to catch the 3 pm ferry back to Boston. Billy was a natural athlete who was used to pushing his body to its limits, and this was yet another way to feed his passion for endurance sports, while also providing an outlet for his grief.
Action/Response: After completing the ride to Provincetown a few times, Billy realized that his personal endurance challenge could become an effective method of raising money for cancer research. Relying on past experience organizing sporting events at a youth summer camp, Billy began assembling the pieces of the first Pan-Massachusetts Challenge.
On September 6-7, 1980, 36 riders set out on a 220-mile ride from Springfield to Provincetown, Massachusetts. A number of unforeseen challenges made for a trying first year. There were no planned food or bathroom stops, and three riders had trouble interpreting the hand-drawn route map and ended up in Rhode Island. When the group finally arrived in Provincetown, they found that the ferry wasn’t running because of mechanical issues! Nonetheless, they had raised a total of $10,200 for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Billy realized on the bus they ended up taking back home that he had found his life’s calling. When he presented the check to Dana-Farber, he promised that he would make the PMC bigger and better the following year.
Results/Accomplishments: Since the inaugural ride in 1980, the PMC has grown to include over 5,000 riders and nearly 3,000 volunteers on an annual basis. Over the last 29 years, it has raised nearly $240 million in funding for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and its annual contribution now constitutes 60 percent of the revenues of the Jimmy Fund—the fundraising arm of Dana Farber.
In 2008, participants in the PMC ride raised and donated $35 million to Dana-Farber, the most money ever raised by a single athletic fundraising event in the US. The PMC is among the most efficient athletic fundraising events; 100 percent of every rider-raised dollar goes directly to cancer research.
PMC funding is considered “seed money”; it allows researchers and doctors to finance innovative experiments and conduct initial trials to qualify for federal funding. Dana-Farber research that was funded by PMC-raised money has resulted in over $1 billion in federal funding. The bond between the PMC, and Dana-Farber is so strong that Dana-Farber President Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD says, “When they write the history of how cancer was conquered, the PMC will be in chapter one.”
Stories/More Information:
Social Return on Investment Remains Strong, Despite Lagging Economy – our reflections on The PMC and the 2008 fundraising results, published in The Huffington Post
Billy Starr speaking about the success of the PMC on NECN
Billy Starr speaking about his mother and the founding of the PMC
PMC One Video – promotional video from 2008 ride
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