Being Cal's dad the cause, the purpose and the mission of Cal's Angels are near and dear to my heart. I am joining the WOW Team of riders for the last two days of the ride from the University of Iowa to St. Charles, IL not because it's some crazy idea I woke up with to check off my list, but rather since the early days of Cal's so many others have done great things like this to help us help these kids and their families and I've always wanted to be a part of it.
My first attempt out of the gates was to join the Cal's Chicago Marathon team in 2019 but my running career was cut short when I ended up getting two new hips before the marathon even started. I took two years off to rehab and get back into fighting shape knowing that riding a bike is something the new hips can handle way better than pounding the pavement. It's no less physically taxing but it doesn't have the shock producing impact of running.
This ride is going to be right around 200 miles over those two days combined with right around 6,000 feet of elevation climb out of the Mississippi River Valley proving to be quite a test of endurance. Not as much of a test as those doing the whole 1,000 mile ride from Mt. Rushmore and definitely nothing compared to what Cal and all these kids have endured during their archaic and sometimes barbaric cancer treatments but still a challenge I am looking to conquer in hopes of being a part of finding a cure for pediatric cancer.
Cal would have been 28 this year on June 7th so I have set a very lofty fundraising goal at $28,000 representing $1,000 for each of Cal's birthdays. 100% of these funds all of us riders raise are designated to pediatric cancer research in hopes that no other parents ever have to endure the extreme pain and anguish we endured through the loss of Cal and way too many other families endure every year.
As many of you know, in 2019 Cal’s Angels commited $1 million to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital for the Cal’s Angels Drug Discovery Program. We are excited to provide some promising updates: The drug discovery library has been completed with over 11,000 different drug options. Included in that million dollars was the purchase of the Echo 550 Robot which has been successfully delivered and is now in production. This robot has the ability to test drugs 382 times faster than a human. We are so excited to have this in place and looking forward to its capabilities.
Whether it be $5, $25, $100 or $1,000 every little bit that fitrs your budget helps not just me achieve my lofty $28,000 goal but also Cal's Angels in being a part of finding the cure and there no longer being a need for Cal's Angels!
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