About Ride for Life

Now in its fifth year, Ride for Life is a fun annual bicycling event held in Alaska. It’s also a way to help Alaskans in need, as individual riders and teams raise funds to help cover the cost of screening for our low-income and underinsured neighbors. For the last two years we have given almost $100,000 to the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center so that community members would have access to Colorectal Screening. As you might know, colon screening is nearly 100% effective in preventing colorectal cancer. Your donation will save a life. Through our efforts and the generous commitment of doctors and other health care providers, in the first year almost 500 people at high risk for colorectal cancer have been screened.
In the beginning...Ride for Life was started in 2004 by Larry Holman after he was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer and subsequently treated in Alaska. While in treatment, Larry and several friends and acquaintances began planning a two-day, 125-mile ride to Seward, with an overnight camping stop at Summit Lake. That year and the next, Larry and more than 150 fellow riders raised over $75,000 for the Lance Armstrong Peleton Project, with the money coming from more than 500 individual donors.
In 2006, Ride for Life switched gears and held the ride in Anchorage, with riders biking between 30 and 100 miles. The ride started and finished at Kincaid Park. The other big change was targeting a local project to benefit from the money raised. Ride for Life formed an association with the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center (ANHC) and other health care organizations in town to develop a colorectal screening program for low-income and underinsured Anchorage residents. Many of you might remember Coco the Colossal Colon a giant copy of a real-life colon. People got crawl though Coco as an educational tool to promote colon health. We also put on a Health Fair at Kincaid Park to promote wellness in our community.
2007 – Last year, by popular demand, Ride for Life traveled back to Seward! With Providence Alaska Medical Center as our major sponsor, and we again targeted ANHC and colorectal screening as our main goal. We were treated to entertainment by a great band, Stray Dogma, inspirational speakers (including well-known musher, athlete and breast cancer survivor Dee Dee Jonrowe) and a sumptuous barbecue hosted by the Lodge. We raised over $120,000 including in-kind donations. We presented a check for $60,000 to the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center in March to kick off this years screening program.
2008 promises to be another great year. We are again biking to the town of Seward along the most beautiful highway in the world. Goldwingers (a local motorcycle club) will accompany us this year to provide safety along the route and we have great aid stations again. Entertainment is planned and we will camp out at the beautiful Summit Lake Lodge and enjoy the Lodge’s great cooking again. Come join us in riding to Seward and raising funds that will save a neighbor’s life.

You can sign up and solicit donations on line or mail in a hard-copy registration form. It will be a great ride, great fun and great inspiration.


Ride for Life, Alaska Board of Directors

Larry Holman, President
George Stransky, Secretary
Barbara Holman, Treasurer
Dawn Murry, Member
Wanda Katinszky, Member

2008 RFL Steering Committee

Director..........Larry Holman
Assistant Director……….Lynn Peterson
Logistics Coordinator……….Mike Jens
Volunteer Coordinator..........Bjarne Holmes
Volunteer Assistant Coordinator……….Livy Holman
Registration Coordinator……….Veronica Beagan
Publicity Coordinator……….Molly McCammon
Aide Station Coordinator……….Annie Ronsee
Photography/Videographer/Graphics..........George Stransky
Web Designer..........Richard Larson