By Samantha Bridgman

Four Lunenburg residents were among the 5,169 cyclists in the 32nd annual Pan-Massachusetts Challenge last August. They raised  $17,930 of the $35 million that the PMC donated to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund and many of those individuals plan to continue fundraising and cycling in the 2012 Pan Mass Challenge.

    The PMC, founded in 1980, is an athletic fundraising event, passing on 100 percent of its proceeds to the Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund, one of the world’s top centers for pediatric cancer research and treatment. These funds are used to enhance the ability of the Institute to research and provide care to children and adults with cancer.

    Lunenburg resident Kelly Kurtz (in photo on left) rode the 192-mile, 2-day event from Sturbridge to Provincetown to give back to the facility that helped her mother, Vera McCarthy, in the fight for her life. She surpassed her $4,200 goal by raising $4,800.

    “Taking on the challenge of the ride was a bit overwhelming at first however I followed the training schedule the PMC has on its Web site,” said Kurtz who participated in her first PMC in 2011. Kurtz spent many hours at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer center during McCarthy’s treatment for a rare cancer.

    “During that time in Boston [at the Cancer Center] … I came to the PMC Bridge that connects the two facilities. The pictures [on the bridge] overwhelmed me and I immediately began to cry,” said Kurtz.  

    The bridge, a skywalk called the PMC Bridge to Progress, was first created in 1997. On its walls is a collage, updated annually with names and photos, a tribute to the bike-a-thon and all its riders and supporters.

    Faced with images from the bridge and her mother’s constant courage and strength up until her final days made a deep impact on Kurtz.  

    “I felt compelled at that very moment that I would ride the 2011 Pan Mass Challenge,” said Kurtz.

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