Twenty years ago, Dr. Michael Caliguiri was a trainee at the Harvard Medical School, completing his residency and fellowships in medical oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
One of Caliguiri’s memories from Harvard include the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC), a fundraising bicycle tour that donated all proceeds to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. It was in its 10th year during his time there.
In 2007, Caligiuri, then the director of The Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center, ran into a friend from Harvard who reminded him of the bike tour and gave him an idea.
“He was talking about the bike thing and he said to me, ‘Do you know how much that raises now, in one weekend?’ and I said no,” Caligiuri said. “And he said, $35 million.”
Caligiuri, who was to become the CEO of the James Cancer Hospital at OSU in January of 2008, knew there was a need for more research funding.
“I knew cancer research was stagnant at the National Institute of Health(NIH),” he said. “And I knew that we needed to do something to get things moving on.”
In the past 8 years, there have been no increases in funding for cancer research and when inflation is taken into account, there has been about a 20 percent decrease in cancer research funding, Caligiuri said.
“Cancer is the number one killer in the world, as of 2010,” he said. “We can cure it, like we have with tuberculosis. We’ve been able to quiet down AIDS and it’s a completely outpatient disease now. That was all through research. We can do that same thing with cancer, we’ve just gotta stand up and get angry.”
Caligiuri traveled to Boston to meet with Bill Starr, the founder and executive director of the PMC.
“I told him I’ve got a phenomenal community, a phenomenal university here, a flat place with lots of bikers,” he said. “And I asked him, ‘How can I get to $10 to 20 million on the spot? How can I do that?’ And he said, you’ve gotta have someone sponsor it.”
Sponsorship would ensure that all of the money initially raised goes straight to cancer research, Caligiuri said.
Caligiuri worked with President of SC-Consultants Cindy Hilsheimer, who got him in touch with Daniel Rosenthal, president of NetJets.
Rosenthal wanted to hear more about Caligiuri’s plan for a bike tour to raise money for the James. Caligiuri worked more with Hilsheimer and developed a plan to present to NetJets.
“They said that if they stayed in Columbus that they wanted to support this,” Caligiuri said. “And that it’s the right thing to do. They don’t just want us to make money, they want to make an investment. In the first year, they are giving us $12.5 million and we should raise $40 million over five years.”
With NetJets’ sponsorship, Pelotonia was born. A grassroots bike tour, it will last for two days and consist of three routes, up to 180 miles.
NetJets set up a separate limited liability corporation (LLC), called Pelotonia, which is headed by executive director Thomas Lennox.
“There is a sense of urgency to find a cure and help people with cancer live longer,” Lennox said. “The primary use [of Pelotonia] is to raise up capital and intellectual capital and to provide more research and further the James as the leading cancer hospital.”
Pelotonia hopes to have 2,225 riders, with 1,000 currently registered.
Lennox and his staff have tried to “appeal to just about everyone” to recruit riders, Lennox said.
“We’ve had meetings with just about every organization, we’ve approached all bike shops and bike clubs in Ohio,” Lennox said.
Caligiuri is on the Pelotonia board and is working closely with them, making presentations to other corporations.
“We haven’t had a single person that is not interested in helping,” he said. “Money means discovery and discovery means cure.”
Pelontonia has also received “big-time involvement” from the highest levels of the university, especially with the help of President E. Gordan Gee.
“Gee has sponsored five campus-wide meetings to talk about his passion for curing cancer and for having all of the OSU staff and students involved,” Caligiuri said. “His first wife died of breast cancer and he’s very passionate about this.”
Pelotonia also has 150 slots reserved for OSU students to be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. They will not be required to pay the $100 registration fee, thanks to sponsor Marquis Jet. If a student does not meet the fundraising minimum for the route they chose, Marquis Jet will donate the difference for them, said Kelley Griesmer, director of operations at Pelotonia.
“We’ve really tried to get our arms around OSU,” Lennox said.
Pelotonia will begin Friday, Aug. 28 at 3 p.m. with general registration.
There will also be an expo, food and remarks by the leaders and board members of Pelotonia, along with comments by Lance Armstrong, who will be riding in the bike tour.
The tour starts on Saturday and there are four routes offered to riders. The first route is 180 miles and will take two days. The other three routes, 100 miles, 50 miles and 25 miles, will take one day. The fundraising commitments vary from $1,000 to $2,000 based on the distance.
The 180-mile tour is “very popular,” Lennox said, and will include an overnight stay at Ohio University.
Gee will be doing the 50-mile route, along with football coach Jim Tressel, Gov. Ted Strickland and possibly Mayor Michael B. Coleman, Caligiuri said.
Caligiuri himself will be cycling in the 180-mile tour. After talking to his friend about the PMC two years ago, he got a bike and completed one of the PMC’s 160-mile routes.
“It was addictive, it was amazing, it was wonderful,” he said. “It was just a blast, so many people sharing the same cause. This is a way for everybody to do something about the slaying this monster called cancer.”
Megan Savage can be reached at [email protected].
