New Haven Register LogoHearst Newspapers Logo

Tears, joy and remembrance define 7th annual Closer to Free ride for cancer

Tears, joy and remembrance define 7th annual Closer to Free ride for cancer

By , moleary@nhregister.com @nhrmoleary on TwitterUpdated
(Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Media Connecticut) New Haven, Connecticut: Friday, September 9, 2017. Cancer patient Janet Shields of Hamden, kisses a bicyclists during the 7th Annnual Closer to Free Ride to benefit Smilow Cancer Hospital Saturday morning at Yale New Haven and Yale Cancer Center. One hundred percent of the funds raised by Closer to Free bicycle riders and volunteers goes to research and patient care at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center. Participating bicyclists had a choice of riding different routes at 10 miles, 25 miles, 62.5 miles and 100 miles.
(Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Media Connecticut) New Haven, Connecticut: Friday, September 9, 2017. Cancer patient Janet Shields of Hamden, kisses a bicyclists during the 7th Annnual Closer to Free Ride to benefit Smilow Cancer Hospital Saturday morning at Yale New Haven and Yale Cancer Center. One hundred percent of the funds raised by Closer to Free bicycle riders and volunteers goes to research and patient care at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center. Participating bicyclists had a choice of riding different routes at 10 miles, 25 miles, 62.5 miles and 100 miles.Peter Hvizdak/Hearst Connecticut Media

NEW HAVEN >> Brittany Heins choked up as she thought about her mother-in-law.

“We got 20 good months with her,” Hines said, fighting back tears, over the death of Jackie Heins at the age of 58 from colon cancer.

Almost three dozen Hines family members and friends were at the Yale Bowl Saturday morning at the Closer to Free cancer bicycle ride fundraiser to honor their deceased relative.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

They had made their own T-shirts with Jackie’s signature on the front and the number 24, which was on her jersey when she was an All State basketball player for Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden.

“We are so thankful for Smilow (Cancer Hospital,),” Kyle Hines said of the care his mother received at the facility in New Haven.

Kyle Hines said the Sacred Heart community also had been wonderful to the family.

Ronald Heins, Jackie’s husband, said a coaches for cancer basketball game was dedicated to his wife.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Abe Lopman, executive director of Smilow and senior vice president for operations at Yale New Haven Hospital, said 1,750 people had registered for the ride and they expect to have raised more than $3 million once all the donations are in by the end of the month.

The 7th annual Closer to Free featured 10, 25, 62.5 and 100 mile routes along the Connecticut shoreline. Officials said 100 percent of the funds raised by riders will be used for research and care at Smilow Cancer Hospital and the Yale Cancer Center.

Carmen Morera, 32, of New Haven brought up the rear in the popular 10-mile route, which she undertook to honor her 18-year-old cousin who died eight months after being diagnosed with liver and lung cancers.

Three members of the family participated in the ride, with older relatives cheering them on.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“It was definitely a challenge, but going to work everyday is a challenge, so I didn’t want to quit,” Morera said.

”I drive a school bus,” she said by way of explanation.

She said she was relieved when she finished. “I’m done. I did it,” Morera said, who then gave herself a little cheer.

Elizabeth Falcigno of Westport rode the 25-mile route for the third time in remembrance of her grandfather, Edmund Falcigno Jr., who died in 2015 after five years with kidney cancer. ”I do it as a thank you for all the people at Smilow. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have gotten the extra years with him that we did ... The people there treated him like family.”

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Unlike last year, there were numerous food trucks to feed the crowd of cyclists and their fans who gathered at the Yale Bowl to watch the first wave of participants arrive back about an hour after the event kicked off at 7 a.m.

The longest line at the Bowl was at the craft beer tent, where the New England Brewing Company in Woodbridge and the Stony Creek Brewery in Branford joined forces and had some 45 members on their team riding and raising an estimated $60,000 for Smilow.

Buddy Britton, 50, of Woodbridge was part of the team. He said he did it because “a bunch of my friends had been egging me on for years after I had my knees replaced.”

Britton, who used to race mountain bikes, said he rode Saturday as a salute to two of his co-workers who had cancer and “kicked it.”

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“Getting back on a bike felt odd, but it feels great now,” Britton said after finishing the 25-mile ride.

He said he volunteers at another brewery and many on the team have connections to the craft beer community.

Marty Juliano, director of business development at New England Brewing, who arrived at the Bowl at 5 a.m.. said both breweries joined forces and put out a special beer for the event — a session IPA — named Herducken. They sold it at their breweries to raise money for Smilow and sent it to select bars, which then returned a percentage of the sales to the hospital.

Sean McCann, 43, after finishing the 25-mile ride, said he and his family have been at the fundraiser for the past five years to honor his father, Michael McCann, who died of pancreatic cancer last year.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Sean McCann was on team Mike & Ike, named for his dad and Ike Baitch. They were friends when they were living in Westville when their children were young. The pair reconnected when they both were being treated for pancreatic cancer at Smilow. Baitch died a year before McCann.

McCann and two friends raised more than $3,000 in pledges Closer to Free.

Dr. Jeremy Kortmansky, a medical oncologist at the Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Center in North Haven, has been doing the ride for six years.

“I ride in support of the cancer center and in support of all my patients who are also out here riding,” said Kortmansky, who spotted six of them Saturday on the bike route.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

|Updated
By