Three Medford residents participate in Pan-Mass Challenge this weekend

By Michelle Visco | Correspondent

The Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) is the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s most successful fundraiser. The annual bike-a-thon across Massachusetts raises money for cancer treatment and research and it will be taking place this weekend, on Saturday, Aug. 2 and Sunday, Aug. 3. 

The goal this year is to earn a record $76 million in donations. Last year, the riders’ donors contributed $75 million to the cause, which was also a record.

The nation’s single most successful athletic fundraising event is in its 46^th year. Throughout those five decades, it has collected over $1 billion, all going directly to Dana-Farber for cancer research and patient care.

More than 6,800 riders have signed up this year.

Three Medford residents, who have all been diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, are participating in this lifechanging event. Drew Stadterman is volunteering at the PMC while two others, Peter Chinetti and John Slonimsky, will be riding in the event. 

Drew Stadterman

Stadterman has been living in Medford since 2018 with his wife Hannah and their daughter Nora.

“Medford truly is a community!” he said. “In the seven years I have lived here, I have seen how passionate people in Medford are, and how welcoming, caring and an inviting place Medford is.”

Stadterman has been a volunteer with the PMC for over 30 years, and is currently a Water Stop Co-Coordinator at the Barnstable Water Stop, which is the first water stop on Cape Cod on day 2 of the PMC.

His family has been working at this water stop since he was a young child and it’s become an annual family tradition. They originally started working at this water stop at the suggestion of his father’s best friend who was and still is a rider.

Stadterman was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2011 at age 27.

“The shock of being so young and having to fight one of the hardest battles of your life, as you can imagine, was pretty scary,” he said.

At the time Stadterman was living in Portsmouth, N.H. and he knew Dana-Farber was where he wanted to receive his treatment. He went through eight rounds of chemotherapy and has been in remission since April of 2012.

Stadterman called Dana-Farber a world class facility that treats not only your cancer, but you as a person. Each and every person that works there is focused on fighting and curing cancer.

The cancer Stadterman had currently has a survival rate of 89% and it’s because of the research and treatment protocols being refined by places like Dana-Farber that makes that possible.

This year, Stadterman is looking forward to seeing all the riders come through the water stop Sunday morning, each with a personal story of how cancer has impacted them. Many of the riders wear ribbons, pictures, and stories of loved ones that have fought and beaten cancer, as well as ones they have lost.

“It is incredibly moving to see the vast number of people all pedaling for the same purpose,” Stadterman said.

Peter Chinetti

Chinetti and his wife, Jill Richardson, have lived in Medford since 1981 and this will be his 24th year riding in the PMC.

“When you have lived in the same town for over 40 years, I think it’s safe to say you love the community,” he said, of living in Medford. “We love its proximity to Boston and all that entails. We love its diversity and its neighborhoods and all the natural beauty within its borders but yet so close to Boston.”

For the first 18 years of the PMC, Chinetti rode the 192-mile two-day ride from Sturbridge to Provincetown. After COVID-19, he has been doing one-day rides.

His own cancer experience “was a perfect example of how well things can go when your cancer is detected early by a very observant radiologist who was reading an ultrasound I had for something unrelated to cancer. It was identified and removed surgically before it had the chance to grow and spread in 1998.”

While Chinetti was being diagnosed and treated, he had a female friend he had known since high school who was being treated for breast cancer. He said they encouraged each other as they were going through treatment, but once he recovered from surgery and his life went back to normal, she entered a cycle of increasingly more difficult treatments as her cancer kept recurring. She passed away a few years later

“That, more than anything, was the thing that motivated me to find some way to help make sure that no one else would have to suffer what my friend and her family did,”  Chinetti said.

He typically trains by himself, but this year he is doing more training rides with his daughter, Kathryn. For the first time, the father/daughter duo will do a 25-mile PMC ride together from Wellesley to Foxboro, which Chinetti is very excited to do. 

His goal is to raise $10,000. In his previous 23 years of riding, he has raised just under $180,000.

“The spirit and camaraderie of being together with several thousand people with a common cause” is what Chinetti said he is looking forward to the most this year.

John Slonimsky

Slonimsky has been living in Medford since 2010 with his wife Julie, his son Jake, his daughter Bella, and their Russian Blue cat, Thunderpuff. He has found Medford to be welcoming and accepting, especially exemplified by their community at Temple Shalom of Medford.

He said of the community that it is conscious about sustainability, evident in the abundant and effective use of the “Everything Free Medford” Facebook group that supports reuse rather than trashing household items. He also appreciates the Medford Public School system and the small businesses that know customers on a first name basis.

Slonimsky will be riding in his fourth PMC as he has ridden in 2007, 2009 and 2023. He was diagnosed with follicular B Cell Lymphoma in August 2022 and while it does not yet require treatment, Slonimsky said there is a wait-and-watch regiment every six months by the doctors in the Lymphoma Department at Dana-Farber.

Slonimsky is part of Team FLAMES (Fast Legs and Minds Ending Suffering) PMC Cycling Team, which he started riding with in 2023 after his cancer diagnosis. He plans to raise no less than $6,000, but the more the better, he said.

For training, in the winter Slonimsky rode his bike indoors on a smart trainer, for sessions between 20 minutes and 1.5 hours in duration. In the nicer weather, he commutes the 22-mile round trip to his job at HP Hood in Lynnfield using his fixed gear bike.

Currently, Slonimsky is building up miles on his multi-gear road bike, either alone or with his team. He will be riding 186 miles and completing the two-day ride that will start in Sturbridge.

Slonimsky said this is the final year for this original route because next year the start moves to Worcester. The first day will end in Bourne. The second progresses from Bourne to the finish in Provincetown.  This year he is looking forward to the support of the crowds.

“Hearing the cheers of support and encouragement along the route; and reading the heartfelt signs calling out loved ones lost to cancer,” he said. “In 2007, I was moved to tears in the final miles of my ride when I came across large signs each final mile bearing a woman’s face and the tag line ‘Remember Sue.’”

Each year, Slonimsky looks forward to riding into the finish en masse with Team FLAMES and each year, the team co-coordinates its riders to cross the line in Provincetown as a unified group.

Slonimsky looks forward to the feelings of exhaustion and elation that comes with completing a century ride (over 100 miles).

Stadterman, Chinetti and Slonimsky all said they believe donating to the PMC and Dana-Farber is the best way the Medford community can get involved in the event.

“There are plenty of local riders that you can donate to, or you can donate directly to the PMC,” Stadterman said. “Every rider raised dollar goes directly to Dana-Farber to support their mission of a world without cancer. Volunteers are the lifeblood of the PMC so find a way to get involved, they have additional rides including an off-road event, kids ride, and a winter indoor cycle as well.”