The Connecticut Challenge honored its Road Warriors and Top 20 teams for 2013 at a recent reception at the CT Challenge Center for Survivorship in Southport. New Canaan had one team honored in Riders for Survivors, captained by John Murphy.
Each Road Warrior commits to raising at least $3,000 to support their CT Challenge Bike Ride and most participate on teams, as do 85% of all riders. This year’s teams accounted for 85% of the record $1.65 million that was raised.
Top corporate teams this year were Aetna, BMW of Bridgeport, Orthopaedic Specialty Group and A Little Square. Participating hospital teams included Waterbury’s Leever Cancer Center and Norwalk Hospital’s Whittingham Cancer Center.
The ride, which was July 26 and 27, is the engine that fuels CT Challenge survivorship programs that help cancer survivors live healthier, happier and longer lives, filling the void that exists to help bodies ravaged by the protocols needed to fight the disease when hospital visits are done, according to a release. This includes the Challenge Center, which opened one year ago in Southport.
The center is the only stand-alone survivorship center in the country. “It is an incubator for best practices that will set the model for fitness, nutrition, community support and lifestyle programs nationwide,” according to a release. Its programs are based on research which shows that outcomes and outlooks improve exponentially for cancer survivors who follow a programs like those offered at the Center for Survivorship. Challenge programs impacted more than 54,000 cancer survivors last year.
The 2014 CT Challenge Bike Ride opened for registration on Dec. 1. It will take place July 25-26 at the Fairfield County Hunt Club in Westport. Participants choose to ride distances of 10 to 184 miles over one or two days and raise funds to support programs for cancer survivors.
More info: Bike.ctchallenge.org, ctchallenge.org
John M. Murphy of New Canaan captained this team of cyclists — Riders for Survivors — in the CT Challenge Bike Ride last July.