One of 15 Tri-Town residents who took part in the August 6-7 PanMass Challenge bike ride, Debbi Bacchiocchi, is eager to note that every participant has a story.
“You can talk to 6,000 riders, and they will all tell you a story,” said Bacchiocchi, making a rough reference to the approximately 6,300 who took part in the event this year along with approximately 3,500 volunteers.
Bacchiocchi is among seven riders from Rochester to participate this year, along with Sarah Bernier, Sheila Kozlowski, Riley Johnson, Keith Riquinha, Lazaro Rosa and Wareham Police officer Calib LaRue. Marion was represented in this year’s PMC by Jim Forker, Sarah Poulin, James Shachoy and Bill Tilden, and Mattapoisett was represented by Robert Inches, Jill Inches, Elizabeth Richardson and Lisa Winsor.
A Kindergarten teacher at Rochester Memorial School with an obvious love for children, Bacchiocchi was in the middle of her master’s degree program when she first saw the PanMass Challenge parade past her Rochester home.
“I’m doing that next year,” she thought, so she trained and eventually did. “Too many family members, colleagues of mine, were being diagnosed with cancer. The PanMass Challenge was the only organization where 100 percent of the fundraising went to the fundraiser and not to executive costs. That intrigued me.”
Bacchiocchi’s passion for the ride was stoked some years back when a Rochester family had a baby named Chloe Harding who was diagnosed at birth with leukemia, resulting in multiple surgical procedures.
“They were going to send her home until a new procedure at Dana Farber gave her seven more years of life. She was rediagnosed at the beginning of Kindergarten … her love for school just made my ride more significant,” said Bacchiocchi, who mourned the loss of Chloe in 2019 at age eight. “Now I ride in her memory.”
Chloe actually rode three times in the Kids PMC, despite her health challenges.
“She didn’t feel well,” recalled Bacchiocchi, noting how her family told her she did not have to ride. What Chloe said is what resonates every year for her Kindergarten teacher. “She didn’t want her doctors to treat any more children with cancer. That’s why I ride, and I will continue to ride as long as I possibly can. … If I can do it, I’m going to do it.”
Johnson, a first-timer who has lived in the Tri-Town region the past 16 years, began cycling in 2021 with the goal of riding the PMC this year.
“The event was always something that motivated me as I have seen the unfortunate side of cancer with people who were close to me,” said Johnson. “Ultimately, I hope that this fundraiser and others like it can help eliminate cancer entirely.”
Like over 6,300 others, Johnson braved a very hot PMC weekend, having learned that 2022 will go down as one of the three hottest PMC rides on record.
“Staying hydrated and stretching throughout the course of the two-day event were crucial to being able to finish,” he said. “I really appreciate every volunteer who came out to support the ride by running the rest stops, because without them constantly fueling and keeping us all hydrated, the ride would have been much harder.”
The 2022 PMC marked Bacchiocchi’s 15th year as a participant. Technically, she is part of the WROR team, but that affiliation was only a mechanism to get her involved via a donation of $105 in accordance with the radio station’s 105.7 frequency on the FM radio dial.
“I’ve really never been a part of a team, even though I’m part of the WROR team … that just happens to be the radio station I listen to in the morning,” said Bacchiocchi, who joined that team a decade or so ago when it became the PMC official radio station.
She said that morning-drive disc jockey Brian Bell is the only other member of the WROR team who rides. “We finally met this year,” she said.
The PMC expanded so that riders could choose a manageable length, but the full, two-day jaunt from Sturbridge to Provincetown had become so popular a challenge the route was already at capacity when she first signed up in the month of March.
Her first year she rode the 50-mile Wellesley to Wellesley course and in her second year from Sturbridge to Bourne. Starting in her third year, Bacchiocchi always rides the full two days to Provincetown.
“I’m still a ‘heavy hitter’ fundraiser,” she said, nearing the top 10 percent. “It’s not too late to donate to a rider.”
For more information or to donate, visit pmc.org and search a PMC rider of your choice.
By Mick Colageo