This will be my eighteenth year participating in Pelotonia, where I combine my love of cycling with a transformational goal -- to end cancer. I have consistently reached five figure fund raising goals during every year of this remarkable cycling event. At this moment of registration for 2026, my all-time dollars raised is now at $242, 018.

All of us have been touched by cancer, and we hear about someone stricken with the disease almost every day. While more people are living with cancer, we all can list friends and family who have lost their battle. I dedicate my ride to the memories of my daughter, Jessica Kass, who lost her battle with brain cancer in November of 1990 when she was just a toddler, and to my beloved dad, Ernie Stern, who fought lung cancer at the very end of his long and wonderful life when he died in January of 2017 at the age of 93. My heart is heavy with the passing of friends Chas Wetherbee in 2023 and Ben Fireman in 2025. I have dear friends who are being treated for cancer today. It is my hope that events like Pelotonia will spur the research at Ohio State's top ranked cancer program to help eradicate such a terrible disease.

I am proud to join with such a large community of riders, donors, and volunteers committed to this grassroots bike tour and its clear goal. I am thrilled to again be a member of Team Bexley that each year sets the fund raising bar for neighborhood-based pelotons.