The atrium at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. office on Princeton Pike in Lawrence Township was jumping – the DJ turned the music up loud and dozens of employees were moving to the beat, shaking blue and white pom-poms on the morning of Sept. 26.
But the DJ and his music were soon drowned out by cheers and the rattle from plastic New Year’s Eve noisemakers as a group of bicyclists rode up the sidewalk to the entrance to the atrium – wet and bedraggled from the morning rain.
All smiles, the bicyclists dismounted and walked into the atrium. The employees, many of whom were wearing T-shirts that said, “We are riding for our patients,” gave the riders “high fives” and fist pumps and even a few hugs.
The riders, all of whom work for Bristol-Myers Squibb, were on the last leg of a company-sponsored coast-to-coast bicycle ride to raise money for cancer research. The annual event, dubbed Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer, is a relay-style event that involved seven teams and totaled 109 riders.
Members of the first relay team dipped their toes in the Pacific Ocean at the starting point in Cannon Beach, Ore., on Sept. 5, and now the last relay team was going to dip their toes in the Atlantic Ocean at Long Branch later in the day.
The seven teams raised $625,000 in pledges for the fundraising ride. Bristol-Myers Squibb was going to donate up to $500,000, but company officials decided to match the money, dollar for dollar. Fundraising is open until Oct. 15.
Johanna Mercier, who was on the last relay team that arrived at the Lawrence Township office, told the employees that “rain or shine, we ride.”
“As we started out this morning, the rain was pouring. But that’s nothing compared to what people go through when they get a diagnosis of cancer. I think we can all do a little ride in the rain,” Mercier said. She is the head of U.S. and Large Markets, Worldwide Commercial at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Mercier said she was proud of the team and proud to ride along. It is one thing to see it and talk about it, but “it’s a whole other thing to live it. We had six months of training. It was four or five hours on the weekend. The coaches would tell us what to do during the week.”
The ride took the bicyclists up hills and through 100-degree heat, with almost as much humidity, she said. The 109 employees who took part in the relay had to ride in the sun and in the rain. The only thing the coaches could not organize was the weather, she said.
“It has really been incredible. I am riding for my mother. She is my biggest fan. She is a 10-year breast cancer survivor. Never give up. That’s what the ride is all about,” Mercier said as the employees cheered.
“As I think about the ride, it is a privilege to do this. The company offers us a chance to ride for cancer. I don’t know of any other company that gives you this chance. We not only work for the patients, we ride for the patients,” Mercier said.
Susan Braun, the chief executive officer of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, which is the recipient of this year’s fundraising drive, praised the riders and their Bristol-Myers Squibb co-workers.
The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded in 1993 by ESPN and Jim Valvano, whose North Carolina State University basketball team won the national college basketball championship in 1983.
“‘Don’t ever give up,'” Braun said, quoting Valvano, who died in 1993 from adenocarcinoma. “All of you who were riders embody it. You are there for the patients like no one I have ever seen.”
Braun said every dime raised by the cross-country bicycle trek will go into cancer research, because the foundation has no overhead costs.
“We can do so much with that money,” she added. “We want to celebrate more survivors. You are at the forefront. Your giving of yourselves will make a difference in the lives of others. Thank you, thank you.”
