I wanted to follow up on my last message about this year’s Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC), in which I promised to let you know this year’s total amount raised and donated to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute by the PMC. Last Thursday, that total was revealed at the check presentation held by the PMC at Harvard Medical School: (insert drum roll…) $35 Million!

This record-breaking amount represents the largest gift that the PMC has made to Dana-Farber over the past 29 years, and it is also the single-largest gift to charity made by any athletic fundraiser in the country! Many of you contributed to this success through your support of my ride, and those of others, and I thank you.

I wrote a short piece about my experience with the PMC over the past year which was published by The Huffington Post yesterday.

We intend to continue to count on The Huffington Post as a way to spread the word about our work with The Purpose Project and to share more pieces of the stories of the leaders with whom we are working. Please find the story here, and, if you are so inclined, click on the “buzz up” button near the top (which helps build our prominence on the site).

Thanks for your continued support!
Michelle

Boston, MA-On Thursday, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute received a check for $35 million from the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC), the most successful athletic fundraising event in the nation. Some of these dollars will be used to treat a portion of the 1.4 million children and adults who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. And some will fund Dana-Farber’s pioneering research which provides patients with increasingly high odds of survival. But all of them, according to Dana-Farber President Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD are “critical to our mission to eradicate cancer.” And, what makes this gift remarkable is that most of it came from people just like you and me, despite the squeeze that we are feeling on our personal finances.

Read the rest of this entry at The Huffington Post

A few weeks ago, we told you that we would be participating in the 2008 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) as part of our efforts to capture the story of its founder, Billy Starr. Many of you have asked since then how it went, and I wanted to take a moment to share some of the personal reflections that I collected along the two day, 192-mile pedal from Sturbridge to Provincetown.

As Matt and I set off for the opening ceremonies on the eve of the ride, I was filled with anticipation and more than a little trepidation. Even after more than four months of dedicated training, I still didn’t know how I was going to fare over the next 48 hours, or how I was going to make it past the first fifty miles of hills. But, when we arrived at the Sturbridge Host Hotel, my focus quickly shifted away from the physical challenge that lay in front of me. The PMC’s opening ceremonies–presented to an emotionally charged, standing-room-only crowd in the hotel’s ballroom that evening–were a reminder of why the event is so much more than a test of physical endurance. Read the rest of this entry »

One Challenge Met
We want to thank you for your response to our recent challenge grant. Together, your contributions pushed us past our $20,000 goal and secured the matching funds! This achievement comes at a critical time for us and helps us establish a base of funding for the project that we will be able to draw on into the coming year.

One More to Go
This weekend, we will participate in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC)–a 192 mile bike-a-thon supporting cancer research–as part of our efforts to share the story of its Founder, Billy Starr.

Shortly after losing his mother and two other family members to cancer during his final year in college, Billy lost his direction in life–for a while. And it was cycling, his favored outlet for coping with his grief, that brought him back on track. After graduation, Billy began getting up before dawn and setting off on a new personal challenge: to bike 140 miles from his parents’ house in Newton, MA, to Provincetown in time to catch the 3:30 PM ferry home. Read the rest of this entry »