David Bills's Ride
Why I Ride ...
Preparations for the 2012 PMC are underway! I've started training, I've registered as a returning rider and the anticipation has started to build... You are more than welcome to make a donation at any time during the year - you don't have to wait! It's simple and secure; just click on the "Donate To My Ride" button below.
My participation in the PMC started in 2009 ride as a member of Team Kermit, and will resume on August 4th and 5th of 2012, with my fourth journey to Massachusetts to join Team Kermit once again!
A fortuitous meeting with Steven Branfman in November of 2006 in Pomona, and a subsequent visit to Boston in the summer of 2008 where we met with Steven, his wife Ellen and son Adam was all it took to convince me of the fact I needed to be a part of this extraordinary event - as a rider, not just as a donor. It's proven to be a life-changing decision - a decision I've never regretted making since that wondrous day in 2008.
I mentioned Martha and I were in Pomona back in 2006 participating in a ceramics workshop as panelists, and Steven was there as one of three invited artists demonstrating raku firing techniques. During dinner, and the subsequent exchanges we had with Steven over the course of the next year, it was apparent our shared passion for the arts was going to result in a long-term connection, but little did I know how powerful our next meeting would be...
When Martha and I visited Steven during the summer of 2008, we had an opportunity to visit his studio - there on a wall, carefully arranged, were 365 tea bowls. Steven paused for a moment, looked at the bowls, looked at us, looked back at the bowls, took a deep breath and told us the story about how he had created one bowl per day, every day, for the first year after Jared's passing. Some were smaller, others larger, some had fine scoring on their surface, others were craggy, but all were created by a father who lost a son to cancer, and every single one of those 365 vessels has a little piece of Steven - and a little piece of Jared - in it.
In 2006 the Jared Branfman Sunflowers For Life Fund For Pediatric Brain And Spinal Cancer Research was established and linked to the Jimmy Fund. All of the money raised by Team Kermit goes through the PMC and into this fund. It is a fitting legacy to Jared's wish to help others. Cancer has impacted my immediate family as well - my father passed away due to a brain tumor in November of 2001 - consequently I ride in honor of Jared Branfman and in memory of my father, Rexford S. Bills, Jr.
I told our team captain, Steven, after finishing in 2009 I was going to be a “lifer” - a PMC rider until I couldn’t do it any more. That still stands true for me today as I prepare for the 2012 event in August.
I am so happy to have met new Kermit team members each year I've participated and to strengthen the bond that connects us all, (new and returning team members alike), through our shared experiences over the course of these very special two days.
I am so happy to have met new Kermit team members each year I've participated and to strengthen the bond that connects us all, (new and returning team members alike), through our shared experiences over the course of these very special two days.
2012 marks the 9th PMC for the Branfman family and Team Kermit continues to grow each year - I am humbled to be a member of this team, having wrapped up the 2011 event with my strongest ride yet. To quote Steven, "We ride determined to see that cancer becomes a thing of the past." 'nuff said.
My deepest thanks to all of my friends and family supporting me in my efforts for the PMC and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute / Jimmy Fund. Please make a generous donation if you can. Join us in our fight to rid the world of this terrible disease so your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren never have to hear the word cancer again.
Warmest regards,
David H. Bills
My Online Supporters
| I have chosen to keep all of my donors' information confidential; therefore it is not displayed on my PMC public donor list. |