Fall 2024
By Nichole Bernier
Photography courtesy of the Pan-Mass Challenge
Great things can be inspired by loss, and the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) is among them. As a college student, PMC Founder Billy Starr lost his mother to melanoma. In 1980, the athletic youth channeled his grief into action, cobbling together a two-day, 200-mile biking adventure with 36 people, and raised $10,000 to benefit Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund.
This year, to mark its 45th ride and to celebrate crossing a phenomenal $1 billion in lifetime fundraising, the PMC created a film bringing its origin story to life. Screened at Dana-Farber and available on its website, the film is a poignant celebration of a grassroots event among friends that blossomed into what is now the most successful athletic fundraiser in the world.
“The initial ride was a group of friends and stragglers and pirates and convoys who, by hook or by crook, were going to get to Provincetown on their bikes in two days,” says journalist Ken Shulman, a volunteer at that 1980 event, and now a 29-year rider himself. The 17-minute video includes early footage of riders interspersed with lessons learned and statistics achieved.
“In 1980, there was no plan for 1981. It was just something I needed to do,” says Starr, who ultimately created not just a philanthropic community, but the bike-a-thon industry, because he wanted to be part of the miracle of curing cancer. “The PMC is in the business of hope.”