What is the Massey Challenge?

Since this blog is supposed to be about the Massey Challenge, I should probably tell you a bit about what that is.  After 6 years, its pretty difficult for me to explain the Massey Challenge.  Thats part of what this blog is for, really - to show you what it is over the next few months, rather than try to put it into words.  But I'll do my best.

Official Answer:

In 2013, the VCU Massey Cancer Center will be the official charitable partner of the Ukrops Monument Avenue 10K, in Richmond, Virginia.  The 10K isn't a charity race, though, so registration fees don't come back to Massey.  For the last seven years, the Massey Challenge has been a way for those running and walking in the 10k to also separately raise funds to support Massey while also training for their walk or run.  The Monument Avenue 10K is a big deal in Richmond - and beyond really - with a start line that looks something like this:

(Thats a bad picture, but I'm usually in the thick of things and not at the start line, so use your imagination).  Thats just a few of the over 40,000 people who line up to run down Monument Avenue in early spring each year.  And of those, about 1,500 have opted to take on the Massey Challenge in each of the last several years, helping us to raise around $500,000 to support research and advancements at Massey each year. 

Funds raised through the Massey Challenge go into the Director's discreationary fund - allowing him to determine where Massey has the greatest need for funding right this very second.  That means that the money raised as part of the 2013 Massey Challenge will go to work immediately to start making headway in Massey's labs, clinics, and outreach projects. 

Amazing, right?

Unofficial Answer:

The Massey Challenge is amazing, uplifting, emotional, heart-wrenching, laugh-inducing, bond-building, and life-altering. 

Its the Banner of Hope. 

Its black and gold. 

Its an entire city joining together to raise funds to support patients in their community and research that will impact the world. 

Its children running for classmates, daughters running for fathers, cousins running for each other, patients running for their doctors, and strangers running for strangers. 

The Massey Challenge is Love.

Hope.

Strength.

A guarantee that one day patients will never have to hear "you have cancer" again.

Amazing, right?

Video Shoot for the Massey Challenge

While there is still so much to tell about the Massey Challenge and my history with it, a big part of why I wanted to start a blog this year was to record all the amazing things that the Challenge brings into my life.  Things like this:

And this:

 Which led to shots like this:

Thursday was the first ever video shoot for what is to become our "Why Will You Accept The Challenge?" video.  It was a day so amazing that thinking about it now - 48 hours later - still makes my heart swell.

One of my greatest joys as part of the 2012 Massey Challenge was spending Saturday mornings talking to, and then running alongside, members of the YMCA training teams.  And it seemed that each time someone would speak to those runners, the next day registrations for the Challenge increased.  Which led to the question - how can we get even more stories in front of even more people in 2013?

And my darling friend Lauren and I thought a video might just work.

But I'm pretty sure the day of that conversation, Lauren and I were picturing she and I in an office with a flip camera.  And thats definitely not what we got.

Julie often comments that it is amazing to discover who comes into your life and why.  A year ago, I took up Muay Thai and met my friend Brian, who I came to discover is a very talented videographer.  So when Lauren and I hatched this plan, I figured I had nothing to lose by asking Brian if he would be willing to edit together some footage that Lauren and I would shoot ourselves.  He readily agreed - and told me his own story of the loss of his father to cancer just over a year ago.  His father had been a patient at Massey.

With some editing talent on our side, Lauren found someone at VCU to help shoot the interviews we hoped to turn into an inspiring video.  But when scheduling made it impossible for him to follow through with that plan, Brian quickly stepped up to not only edit, but shoot the footage as well.

After weeks of emailing and meeting, Brain gave Lauren and I a crash course in scheduling video shoots.  The lighting, the backdrops, the space needed, the time for each person.  How each question had to be carefully crafted.  How set up takes 2 hours, not 10 minutes.  How you really do need 6 hours of tape for a 3 minute video.  We found 15 willing participants to be part of our project, and we all came together on Thursday, August 16, 2012 to gather the stories, the smiles, and the statements that would make up a video that we hoped would give others just a glimpse of what makes the Massey Cancer Center such a special place - and the Massey Challenge such an amazing endeavor. 

As we celebrated wrapping a 10 hour day of shooting, Lauren, Julie, Becky, Brian, Mary Harvard, and I were all so full of the spirit that surrounds every part of the Challenge.  Our hearts were filled with the stories we had heard, the people we hugged, the laughter that so often filled our "studio" even as heartbreaking stories were being told.  And I think we all knew that there was no way we could ever not be part of the Challenge.  Because each day like that ingrains it deeper into our spirits. 

And then yesterday, Brian sent us the most amazing stills that he captured from our film.  Stills like these - which show the passion and love and life in all these supporters of Massey and the Challenge:

(all photos except the first two above are courtesy of Brian Rule).

Its part of why I encourage everyone I know to be part of the Challenge.  In hopes that they can experience that amazing joy - the joy that comes from knowing with certainty that we are making a difference in the fight against cancer.  From knowing that someday, stories like these wont have to be told.  Because we will have found a cure.

Why $25,151?

I suppose the title of this blog begs clarification.  Why $25,151?  That is my fundraising goal for the 2013 Massey Challenge.  It feels like a huge number - especially when I think back to six years ago when I was just considering taking on the Massey Challenge for the first time and raised over $1,200 when I had never fundraised for anyone before.  Or the second year when $5,000 seemed like an insurmountable goal.  I was celebrating 5 years in remission from Hodgkin's Lymphoma and it seemed like raising $5,000 would be a good way to do it.  But it also seemed a little crazy.

But then I raised $5,000.

And it didn't seem so crazy anymore.

My goal hasn't been as big each year.  Some years I've met my goals, some years I haven't.  But each year I have fallen in love with the Massey Challenge a little bit more.  The Challenge - its people, its mission, its power - has needled its way deeper and deeper into my heart.  And in the last five years my extraordinarily generous family and friends have supported me - and the Challenge - and have continued to drive me with love and encouragement.

So when talk began of how I should celebrate 10 years in remission, raising $10,000 seemed like the next obvious goal.  Until a few close friends pushed me and I raised that much during year 9.

So now what?

That's where my dear friend Julie stepped in.  After adding up the amounts I had raised through the Challenge over the last six years, the number $25,151 emerged.  And it was decided - I would celebrate 10 years in remission by doubling that number.  And thus this blog's title was born.

Am I scared to try to raise that much money in a mere 4.5 months?  Absolutely.  I might fall way short.  But I've thought that before, and I've been surprised, so why not try - right?

My hope for this blog is to let many of you see parts of the Challenge - and to hear parts of my story - that you never have before.  And if I can inspire just one of you to take on the Challenge yourself, that would be worth far more than meeting my goal.