Guest post by Dan Mccreesh
When Brent was diagnosed, some friends kindly developed a website to keep family and friends abreast of where he was – as he was rotating between Yale, home, Dana-Farber. The website morphed into a TeamBrent site, and we had an optin list that we used to spread the word before the advent of social media.
When Team BrentWheels rode its third PMC, Brent and I were cheering at the finish line alongside his two sisters. Brent was wearing a Lance Armstrong Discovery jersey that had been gifted to him by a former TB rider. One rider crossed the finish line in the same jersey as Brent and asked to take a picture with Brent to show their matching jerseys. Little did the unknown rider know what he was starting.
That rider was Ed White & he was riding with a stuffed lobster on his helmet. Ed gave four year old Brent the lobster and in return, Brent gave Ed the TeamBrent hat right off his head. We told Ed that Brent was a cancer survivor, and we hugged and each walked away profoundly moved. When Ed got home he looked up the website url that he had found on the side of the hat.
A friendship was born, and TeamBrent, who had been searching for a helmet mascot, seized on the lobster as a meaningful reminder of how strangers become family.
Emma's uncles have ridden in the "Big PMC" for years. We live in Sturbridge, where it is difficult not to know the PMC is in town. Emma was very used to getting up in the middle of the night to take one or both uncles to the Sturbridge Host for the start of the ride, and to meet me as I volunteered for a shift or two. Soon, she was eager to participate in our local Kids Ride, which was enjoying its inaugural event in 2012. Emma was a "Heavy Hitter" from the start, and earned "Breakaway Fundraiser" status the first two years it was offered. She still displays her certificates and shows off her backpacks. When she was too old to ride herself, she volunteered to assist us in coordinating the Sturbridge Kids Ride. Last year, Emma was finally old enough to join the teen and adult volunteers at the Big Ride. She was all energy and smiles as she worked in the apparel store at the Host on Friday. This year, she watched her email vigilantly and waited for Alumni Volunteer Registration to open. She was eager to sign up for a spot on the coveted Rider Registration crew, with her mom and friends. She was thrilled to learn she responded to the email in time, and will be at Rider Reg in Sturbridge this August. 
