Paceline, a non-profit organization centered around raising funds for innovative cancer research, held a bicycle race to raise early support for this year’s fundraisers.
On Saturday, June 3, at downtown Augusta’s Savannah River Brewing Company, almost 100 riders biked 10 to 25 miles around the city to raise awareness for Paceline’s efforts with a PaceDay kickoff celebration.
“We start the kickoff today to get people in the zone. There’s so much teamwork and preparation, not just physical preparation for the ride, but there’s so much fundraising activities that goes on behind the scenes out there in the community,” said Paceline President Martyn Jones. “So, ultimately it’s a year round effort.”
Husband and wife, Justin and Niajah Moore, have been Paceline fundraisers representing Team Bicycles Against Disparities (Team B.A.D.) for three years, and said they aim to increase others’ knowledge of cancer research and community disparities.
“I’m a researcher at the Georgia Cancer Center, and my work focus is in breast cancer disparities and health disparities in general … and the reason we ride is we want to bring awareness to disparities we see in cancer outcomes,” said Justin Moore. “We observe that marginalized populations, particularly Black, Brown and the LGBTQ community, are disproportionately burdened by cancer.”
According to Justin Moore, African American women are more likely to die from breast cancer, and African American men are more likely to die from prostate cancer or colorectal cancer.
“Our whole mission as a team is to bring together people, who all have different identities, for a common purpose – to raise awareness,” he said. “We also ride because it’s the least we can do for people who are battling with or have lost someone to cancer … to do something like ride 10, 15, 25 or 50 miles for cancer disparities or cancer in general. I think it’s a big deal, because if we can all pool our resources to support more research at the Georgia Cancer Center we may be able to heal cancer faster.”
Niajah Moore said she hopes her team inspires supporters and onlookers by displaying how different people from all walks of life can come together for a common cause.
“Everyone, in one way or another, knows someone who has been impacted by cancer,” she said.
According to a press release from Paceline, the organization saw a 25% increase in participation and a 20% increase in fundraising – the most in any year since Paceline’s first event in 2019, which has brought the cumulative total raised to over $1 million. The upcoming October PaceDay is expected to raise even more with free registration.
“It takes more than a village. It takes community, for businesses and organizations. This is about everyone coming together in the fight against cancer,” said Jones. “It’s our local effort and it’s all supporting our local institution in the Georgia Cancer Center to make it go back in our community here.”
Thanks to operational funding by the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) Foundation and other partners like Georgia Power, Southern Nuclear and Caris Life Sciences, several researchers have already benefited from Paceline funding and attended the kickoff.
Medical College of Georgia President and CEO, Ian Mercier, said his organization wanted to fund Paceline, because they felt it was a great way to incubate a foundation that could raise significant support for cancer research.
“We provide the funding for operations and that allows everybody that you see here on a bike to give every dollar that they raise to the Georgia Cancer Center,” Mercier said as he prepared for the ride. “Tons of folks that are on their bikes today are dealing with [cancer] either directly or indirectly … it’s a monster that’s indiscriminate.”
Registered Paceline fundraisers also raced for the chance to win a $500 reward towards their team or individual goal for this year’s PaceDay.
Members from the Queensborough Bank team, who have been involved since the beginning of Paceline, said their favorite part of riding together was the supportive community that surrounds the non-profit. Best of all, Breitmann said employees, board members and customers of Queensborough Bank often band together for Paceline’s mission.
“Cancer is sadly something that everyone can relate to, and the ability to just connect over that common ground plus an activity is powerful. It’s very personal for me, because my wife is a cancer survivor. Cycling is my hobby and my passion,” said team member Troy Breitmann. “Our team started off with seven riders in the first year … and now we’re on track to have 20+ members.”
Fellow teammate and colleague Lars Frey said he had several family members pass from cancer, and felt the mission and foundation was extremely personal for him. To Frey, there was no reason not to support the great work being done every day at the Georgia Cancer Center and the Medical College.
Following the social race, attendees met back at the brewery for community fellowship and to share ongoing research and project ideas. While a portion of all beer profits went directly to Paceline, 100% of all participant-raised dollars support various cancer research projects at the Georgia Cancer Center.
A brief speech was given by Dr. Malcolm Bevel, a 2021 Paceline grant recipient and assistant professor at Augusta University who specializes in food deserts and swamps, where he spoke on his goal to implement community gardens as a new solution to the lack of local grocery stores on Washington Road.
“Richmond and Columbia County are what we would deem as food swamps, where you live more than one mile from the grocery and/or you have more unhealthy food options – so, that means your convenience stores, fast foods, liquor stores and everything else,” said Bevel.
Using Paceline’s grant, Bevel said his team was able to collect data and found that U.S. counties which scored the poorest in food swamp environments showed a significant finding in cancer mortality rates.
“Those counties have 77% increased odds of having high obesity related cancer mortality rates over the last 10 years,” he said. “This is groundbreaking research … nobody is doing this but us.”
Bevel said this is especially a danger in areas similar to Augusta’s Washington Road, where several fast food restaurants are located and are closer to neighborhoods than grocery stores.
“And here, at the corner of 15th Street and Walton Way, there’s ten fast food restaurants stacked on top of each other with no grocery store, and there hasn’t been a grocery store in the area since 2016,” said Bevel.
In addition to transportation and increased produce prices, Bevel said the high frequency of processed foods all but encourage people to rely heavily on unhealthy choices which lead to cancer. However, Bevel is working towards promoting a new community solution.
“I’m grateful for the Paceline dollars to be able to research this and get this information out to people … and one of the solutions I propose is getting back to community gardening,” he said. “Hydroponic and vertical gardening to start getting back that produce to people in Augusta and beyond … we have purchased a garden that will be put in the Georgia Cancer Center.”
By supporting projects such as Bevel’s, Paceline is funding various solutions to treat, cure and prevent cancer that also seek to address local needs and community problems.
Working to cure cancer faster and erase any barriers to others supporting them in their mission, Paceline has made registration easy and free for anyone who wishes to fundraise.
Culminating in a celebration and fun bike ride on Sunday, Oct. 25, PaceDay will host an opening ceremony party on Saturday, Oct. 14, in the Augusta Common at 836 Reynolds St.
“I feel positively about the future, because of the work that’s happening and the impact we are having, and we’re simply going to see more of that the longer we can do this and every year we grow,” said Jones. “I know there will be nine new innovative cancer research projects as a result of just last year’s fundraising.”
To show support, volunteer or register for the fifth annual PaceDay, visit: https://paceline.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.home
