A NICE RIDE FOR HEAVY HITTERS
PMC gala honors fundraisers
Folks clad in cocktail attire flocked to the InterContinental Boston hotel for the Pan-Mass Challenge’s Heavy Hitter Gala. After 38 years of fundraising for Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute, the bike-a-thon nonprofit is still cranking, attracting high rollers from Boston and beyond.
“Not bad for a 39-year-old, right?” joked Billy Starr, who founded PanMass Challenge back in 1980.
At the InterContinental soiree, you could spot a number of familiar faces. VIP guests included Joshua
Bekenstein, managing director at Bain Capital and chairman of the board of trustees for Dana-Farber; Dr. Laurie Glimcher, president and chief executive officer of Dana-Farber; Robert Smith, managing partner of private equity firm Castanea Partners; Dr. Mark Kieran, director of pediatric medical neuro-oncology at Dana-Farber; Lisa Hughes and
Mark Lund of WBZ-TV; philanthropists Ashley Bernon and Penelope Fireman; David Bergeron, director of operations at Boston-born gym Everybody Fights; and Emily Levy and Maria del Mar Gomez, cofounders of the local startup Mighty Well.
Since its inception, Pan-Mass Challenge has managed to raise a whopping $547 million for DanaFarber. Starr, who started the organization as way to honor his mother, said he knew its fundraising efforts would ramp up, despite the bumpy ride it had in its inaugural year.
“As modest as it was — there were 36 riders, everyone got lost, we ran out of food — people were coming up to me afterward saying they felt this incredible connection throughout the event,” he said. “I knew then that I was going to make this big.”
Now, he said tens of thousands of riders get in on the biking festivities. Last year alone, Starr said they raised $47 million, 100 percent of which went straight to Dana-Farber to fund cancer research and patient treatment.
This year, Pan-Mass Challenge is looking to top that figure and is shooting for $48 million. “That’s 53 percent of the Jimmy
Fund’s annual revenue,” Starr said. “We are a powerful engine.”
He credits the community that has been built around Pan-Mass Challenge for its success. Not only does it have the backing of the Boston Red Sox Foundation and New Balance, it has also rallied members of the medical and investment spaces, making it an initiative true to the Boston identity.
“We’ve got all the right ingredients,” Starr laughed. “It’s like a yearly reunion. Nobody leaves.”