Georgia Cancer Center nonprofit Paceline was unable to host its signature fundraising event, PaceDay, last year in the wake of Hurricane Helene. To make up for this, the organization coordinated a kickoff event both to kick off its fundraising season and to recognize its accomplishments.
Paceline’s celebration event began at 6 p.m., Thursday evening, at the Enterprise Mill Event Center, welcoming its partners and participants—a crowd of about 200—to a catered banquet and awards ceremony.
“What we decided to do was put on a celebration of all the sweat and effort, all of that wonderful support that we had from so many people who we couldn’t hold the party for in October because of the hurricane,” said Paceline President Martyn Jones. “That’s what tonight’s fundamentally about.”
Despite not hosting PaceDay in 2024, Paceline raised more than $250,000 last year toward the cancer center’s research, and a cumulative $1.7 million since launching its first Pace Day event in 2019, even amid two cancellations of the annual bicycling benefit (the other being in 2020, due to the COVID pandemic).
“The best thing about that is this doesn’t have to happen in some big city… it can happen, and it is happening here on our doorstep,” said Jones, underscoring the economic investment in the community Paceline’s efforts represent. “That’s the magic bit; the money that is being invested here, and it’s we’ve got the talent here to make it happen.”
The Georgia Cancer Center, which receives 100% of the monies raised by Paceline’s initiatives, allocates the funds toward the gathering of preliminary data required to apply for larger federal grants, such as from the National Institute of Health (NIH) or the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Paceline’s efforts have funded 26 cancer research projects to date, four of which have received $9.2 million total in NIH grants.
“It has been a tremendous help,” said Dr. Jorge Cortes, director of the Georgia Cancer Center. “You have to show that you’ve already advanced a little bit, that your idea is feasible, that you’re in the right track, that you have the resources to do it—the land, the space, etc., so they want to show some growth. So these pilot data, these background data, that’s what we are getting from these baseline funds.”
Attendees were also able to register for 2025’s PaceDay event, which Jones describes as its “biggest show yet,” welcome cyclists, runners and even walkers to participate.
“We just do our best to inspire and enable the wonder of a community. That’s coming from our heart,” said Jones. “So many people who have had family members affected by cancer, who themselves are going through it, or their survivors, and they want to do something positive about it, knowing that it’s being done here in our community by world class researchers. So we’re very fortunate to truly world class folks here.”
PaceDay 2025 is slated for Oct.5.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
