About Ride for Life Now in its seventh 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 colorectal screening costs of our low-income and underinsured neighbors. 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 at Providence Hospital and Katmai Oncology. 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 more than $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. As most health care providers know, colorectal cancer is almost entirely preventable. In March, when ANHC kicked off their screening program, RFL presented them a check for $35,000 (more than $100,000 in cash and in-kind funds raised). 2007-2008 Ride for Life went back to Seward by popular demand! With Providence Alaska Medical Center as our major sponsor, we once again targeted ANHC and colorectal screening as our main beneficiary. The ride started at the new Providence Creekside Campus in 2007. We were treated to entertainment by the great group 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 will then coasted down to Seward and to enjoy entertainment and food on the lawn at the Alaska Sea Life Center. We raised over $120,000 including in kind donations which help put on the event. We presented a check for $60,000 to the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center in March to kick off this years screening program. 2008 saw the screening of a new PSA on radio and TV financed by RFL, called "Love Your Colon". 2009 was our most challenging year ever to ride as participants faced 25 MPH headwinds along Turnagain Arm and rain both days. Riders came into Seward wet and exhausted with mud in their teeth but with smiles on their face knowing that they compelted a very difficult two-day ride. The riders raised enough funds to give the ANHC $70,000. In 2009 through our efforts and the donated efforts of local physicians, 52 Anchorage residents received free colonoscopies. Almost 1300 received FOB tests (first line Colorectal Screenings) through ANHC. We are making a huge difference in the prevention of Colorectal Cancer in the Anchorage community. Let's do it again in 2010. You can sign up and solicit donations on line at www.rideforlifealaskacom 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 Barbara Holman, Treasurer Dawn Murry, Member Wanda Katinszky, Member 2010 RFL Steering Committee Director..........Larry Holman Fund Raising Coordinator.........Tom Turner Logistics Coordinator……….Mike Jens Volunteer Coordinator..........Bjarne Holmes Registration Coordinator……….Veronica Beagan Publicity Coordinator……….Molly McCammon Aide Station Coordinators……….Wanda Katinszky and Rose Lahti Photography/Videographer/Graphics..........George Stransky Website Designer..........Richard Larson

SCORES OF GENEROUS VOLUNTEERS HAVE GIVEN THEIR TIME THE LAST THREE YEARS AND WILL SO AGAIN! Click here to sign up as a volunteer for this effort