For the past 28 years, the first weekend of August has been all about the PMC for Felice Shapiro.
Shapiro has ridden through the birth of two children and their subsequent graduations from college, the loss of her first husband and her wonderful new marriage, the launch of her publishing company, its growth over 14 years and its successful sale, and the launch of yet another publishing company. All the while, the PMC has been a part of her life.
Shapiro started riding in the PMC because, nearly 40 years ago, she dated PMC Founder and Executive Director Billy Starr. She was 17. Starr was 23 and had just lost his mother to cancer. They remain good friends. After Starr founded the PMC, Shapiro joined the team and has never left. She’s raised $275,000 for Dana-Farber as a PMC rider. Along with the family of friends Shapiro has cultivated over the years, she rides with her son, Jake, and her husband Bill Cress.
Like Shapiro, and many of her PMC contemporaries, BA50 readers have been pioneers since their youth. Among the first women to obtain careers with power and prominence, BA50s followed their feminist foremothers into the workplace in the late 70s and 80s and gained new ground. They achieved great professional success while raising families, or focused on either career or family. Theirs was the first generation with a real choice and an open door.
“When you turn 50, you look back and think the last 25 years went so quickly,” Shapiro says. “So many of us ask how we can make the next 25 years even more meaningful and fulfilling. That’s where BA50 comes in.”
Felice Shapiro, 28-year PMC rider
Post courtesy of Jackie from Teak Media + Communication
