New England Parkinson's Ride Email Formats

About New England Parkinson's Ride

When Chris Woods, an avid cyclist, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 41, the mission of the extended Woods family was to find a cycling event that raised money specifically for Parkinson’s research. For years Chris had been riding in the 150 mile Diabetes ride and the 150 mile MS ride but had never heard of one for PD. After much research, it became clear that there was no ride to join, so the family decided to organize their own! The New England Parkinson’s Ride took shape in the summer of 2008, and linked up with Team Fox at the Michael J Fox Foundation. Although we had only 35 riders that first year, we managed to raise over $27,000 for the Michael J Fox Foundation! We started with a 30, 50, and 100 mile loop, with 10 rest stops and have since added a 10 mile route to accommodate younger families and less experienced cyclists. The ride has grown over the past 13 years and now draws cyclists from across the country and around the globe at both our live event and our virtual ride, Cycling In Sync. Even during a pandemic our cyclists raised over $1.5 million, making the New England Parkinson’s Ride the largest single-day fundraising event for the Michael J Fox Foundation for 6 years in a row! That also put us over $6.9 million in cumulative donations to MJFF! The New England Parkinson’s Ride obtained our 501c3 status as a charitable organization in March of 2013 and, with the exception of the Director and two part-time staff, is run exclusively by volunteers. We are extremely grateful to our SPONSORS, as we rely completely on those dollars along with registration fees and various fundraisers throughout the year for the operational expenses of The New England Parkinson’s Ride. It is of utmost importance to us that 100% of the money that is raised by the cyclists in the form of donations goes directly to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research.

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