Help us raise money

Here is the story...I first ran the Fiesta 5k in 2023 while recovering from running the Boston Marathon. It was a great experience and a wonderful way to feel like a part of Gloucester rather than just living in Gloucester. Outsiders like me who's family hasn't lived here for 300 years know what this means. When 2024 arrived I wasn't feeling very inspired to run again but an idea shot into my head. What if I got a race chair and pushed Al my 94 year old neighbor in the race? Now that was inspiration. Better still was to form a neighborhood team. Al helped name the team and the Riggs Point Rebels team was born. So I found a chair online and bought it. I got Al in the chair for some test rides. He loved it and I started training with the chair. I had no idea if I could push a mobility chair for the race but I was going to try! Unfortunately Al couldn't run the race with me so I scrambled last minute and found Hana Belanger who has mobility issues due to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. She has now completed two races as my co-pilot. Unfortunately Hana is not available to participate this year so I went searching once again and found Meghan Gove to hold Sunny the Wonder dog and coach me through the course. Meghan has been diagnosed with MS. With your help and encouragement I have been the top fund raiser for 3 years straight and hope to achieve that again this year. The team grew to include 31 people in 2025 and we might come close to that again.

It is a great cause supporting the YMCA and what it provides for the community. My dream is for the YMCA to adopt this effort for the Cape Ann Y and all the Y's on the north shore. I call it THE CHAIR CHALLENGE. Just think how much fund raising the Y could accomplish if the chair was pushed in all of the road races every year! Every year someone from the Y membership could accept the challenge and train to push someone they know who has mobility issues. They raise money as a pusher, their team if they have one raises money as a team, the person riding raises money, and a local business could even sponsor the chair each year for promotional purposes. Who loses in that proposition? THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

We did it before and we can do it again....get out and move!!!