The volunteers at the Wellfleet rest stop, one of three on Cape Cod for last weekend’s Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC), had just one job: keep the thousands of cyclists who pass through during the annual fundraising event happy. Many were inspired to appear for the 6.30 a.m. Sunday start for personal reasons. The question “Why do you volunteer?” was always answered with a version of “Cancer took someone I loved.”
“It’s going pretty smooth,” said Laura Sewall of Brockton, who took up the role of site coordinator for only the second time. Wearing a blue shirt, she would already have stood out against the red uniform of the other volunteers, but the giant yellow foam wig made her impossible to miss. That was a tribute to her sister-in-law Cathy Parsons, who had worn a similar wig while running the Wellfleet stop for 29 years. Parsons, also originally from Brockton, stepped down in 2022 — the year she was diagnosed with stage-four brain cancer. She died in June 2023.
“Cathy was a spitfire,” Sewall said. “It’s an honor to fill her big shoes. She was amazing. Just about everyone here knows about Cathy Parsons.”
The PMC is an annual bike-a-thon held on the first weekend of August to raise money for cancer research. Since the first ride in 1980 it has raised more than $1 billion for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Riders from all over Massachusetts choose from 16 route options, from 25 to 211 miles, with varied fundraising minimums. The most popular choice is a two-day ride beginning in either Sturbridge or Wellesley and ending in Provincetown’s West End.
The Wellfleet stop, set up in front of the elementary school, is the last before the finish line. Every volunteer there had a specific role, and there were many to choose from. Music from a DJ booth kept the energy high while multiple water tables and a 50-foot food table laden with fruit enticed weary riders.
There was also a medical tent staffed mostly by nurses who spent the day tending to abrasions and handing out ibuprofen. One of them, Patricia Fitzgerald from Boston, who lost her husband, Kevin, to cancer, said the PMC had been “a positive outlet for my children,” all of whom ride. “They know they’re making a difference.”
That was also what Jack Fargo from Weymouth wanted to do with the tune-up tent, where he helped change tires, lubricate chains, and adjust gears. He doesn’t fix bikes professionally but as an avid rider has the skills to volunteer. “It’s kind of a give-back thing,” Fargo said.
Riders getting their bikes fixed or just taking a break often elected to spend their time at the stop on the ice couches made of stacked five-pound ice bags and draped with towels. The Wellfleet specialty was the brainchild of Cathy Parsons’s brother Rob. Cyclists crowded together, icing their sore bodies.
Parsons’s lasting influence ran through the rest stop. All around, blond wig pins decorated many of the volunteers’ name tags. But Sewall said you could also see it in how all the volunteers, manning their tables and tents, achieved that goal of making those thousands of riders happy.
“I was really nervous last year because it was my first year running it,” she said. “But Cathy has this thing running like a well-oiled machine.”
