Photo courtesy of Pelotonia
Pelotonia attracts the most attention on and around the weekend of the massive bike ride, but it makes a difference all year long.
The ninth annual event, slated for Aug. 4-6, supports cancer research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
The race supports the James in three main ways: research, education of students, and retention and recruitment of faculty.
“A really big chunk of that is the research dollars,” says Amanda Harper, director of media relations at the James. “The research spans things from big statewide cancer research initiatives – we have three so far – to supporting programs like digital pathology.”
Digital pathology allows the James to do research about all cancers. The research money also goes into Idea Grants, which are smaller grants given out twice a year to faculty at the hospital.
One of the statewide initiatives supported is the Ohio Colorectal Cancer Prevention initiative. The program supports efforts to screen newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients and their biological relatives for Lynch syndrome, a condition that increases susceptibility to colorectal and other cancers.
Photo courtesy of Pelotonia
Among the education endeavors funded is the Pelotonia Fellowship Program, which provides support to students who are interested in careers in science.
“That is so important right now because there are a lot of people leaving science careers, and careers in STEM in general, because they feel that it’s too expensive, they can’t afford to go to school that long or they don’t realize all the opportunity there,” Harper says.
A big part of the recruitment/retention portion is packages that help faculty members build research labs.
This year, Pelotonia is expected to have more than 8,000 riders and raise over $25 million, both of which would be records, says Miguel Perez, vice president of the mission and brand of Pelotonia.
“Things are looking good, but we’re not letting our guard down, because we want to make sure everyone gets involved,” Perez says.
In addition to riding, Pelotonia is pushing volunteering, non-riding fundraising and virtual riding as means of getting involved.
Routes range from 25 to 180 miles between Columbus and Gambier.
Emily Hetterscheidt is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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