What a great weekend! We had our third BellRinger ride on Saturday.
By the numbers it was a great success:
- At least 1,166 Riders — over 200 more than last year
- 70 Virtual Riders
- 391 Volunteers
- 419 Student Riders
- 151 Teams
- $4.28 million raised since 2022 (and counting — money for this year’s ride will roll in through December 31)
However, the numbers only tell part of the story. The impact on our cancer research will be huge. Our growing community of supporters includes people from the Georgetown and MedStar Health communities, the larger Washington region, and a slew of corporate partners. There is no denying the momentum here, and at our current pace I fully expect us to break the 1,500-rider mark next year!
Kudos to our BellRinger team, particularly Jonathan Thomas, Kate Colgan, Bridget Holmes and Alyssa Bielinski, who put together this wonderful event and are getting our message out to the community. I am so grateful to them for their efforts. My appreciation extends to our fabulous team captains, especially Nancy Dawson, who raised more than $75,000 — as a virtual rider! — and Mike Atkins, one of this ride’s prime inspirations, who personally raised more than $49,000 and whose team raised more than $99,000 (and counting!).
The Friday-evening celebration was wonderful, with great energy, excellent food and a fabulous “I Ride For” styrofoam cube, where participants wrote brief messages of support, remembrance and encouragement. As we did last year, the cube’s panels will be displayed in the clinic as a show of support for our patients, their families and our great caregivers. These cubes are literally filled with messages that will resonate throughout the year. They are the physical embodiment of why we do what we do, and why what we do is so important.
I was able to get through the 25-mile ride, along with many colleagues, but I will tell you that I probably did not train hard enough as I recovered from a prior hamstring injury. I was pretty beat by the end, but the exhilaration of accomplishment and appreciation of our community overshadowed the fatigue in my sore legs. My legs will recover, and I plan to begin training for next year’s ride sooner than I did this year.
Just like our cancer research, BellRinger is a year-round effort. What we do matters so much to so many people. Let’s honor that commitment by redoubling our efforts to end cancer as we know it.
You know what we need to do. Make the world a better place this week.
Lou
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