BARNSTABLE – The Pan-Mass Challenge announced their largest financial gift ever given to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The record breaking $63 million check exceeds this year’s $60 million goal and brings the PMC’s 40 year fundraising total to $717 million.
The 40th Annual Pan-Mass Challenge bike-a-thon was held in early August, with the route going through Cape Cod all the way to Provincetown.
The PMC is the nation’s most successful single-event athletic fundraiser and donates 100 percent of every rider raised dollar to Dana-Farber, a world leader in adult and pediatric cancer treatment and research.
The money contributed by the PMC accounts for more than 55 percent of the Jimmy Fund’s annual revenue and enable Dana-Farber’s world class physicians to continue leading advancements in cancer research and treatment.
The goal initially was to raise $58 million for 2019, $2 million more than 2018’s $56 million donation.
Two generous gifts and one spirited challenge from dedicated philanthropists helped to accelerate the PMC fundraising efforts this year.
In May, former Overstock.com CEO and PMC rider Patrick Byrne challenged the organization to up the ante and increase its goal to $60 million, pledging to personally donate $1 million himself if the goal was achieved.
Last summer, the Levin family, inspired by the commitment and fundraising efforts of the entire PMC community, honored the organization’s 40 years of funding cancer research and treatment with an additional $2 million donation.
Fred Levin and his daughter in-in-law Terri Levin are former Dana-Farber patients, both cancer free today thanks to treatment they received in Boston.
Their hope is that their donation to the PMC helps to fund advancements in targeted, minimally invasive procedures based on an individual’s genomes.
“I cannot think of a better way to commemorate our milestone 40th ride than with our largest gift ever to Dana-Farber,” said PMC founder an executive director Billy Starr.
“I’m incredibly proud of the role the PMC has played in furthering advancements in cancer research and treatments over the last four decades. It is thanks to the drive and commitment of our entire community of riders, volunteers, sponsors, and donors that we have been able to give more than $717 million to Dana-Farber since 1980, making a truly unparalleled impact in the fights against cancer.”
Next year’s Pan-Mass Challenge will be held on August 1st and 2nd.
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