The seven members of the ‘WeHa Team’ will be riding close to 200 miles over two days the first weekend of August to support the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and to honor Kerrie Massaro, a longtime teacher and coach at West Hartford’s Conard High School.

By Ronni Newton

Riding a bike 186 miles over the course of two days is a bit intimidating for most people, but for Matt Massaro, who lost his wife, Kerrie Massaro, to breast cancer in 2021, taking on the physical challenge and the large fundraising goal is nothing compared to what she went through.

Massaro is being joined by six of his close friends on the “WeHa Team,” which is a subset of a larger Connecticut-based team of 48 people that has been riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge for the past 20 years.

Tom O’Shea is the “game leader” for the WeHa Team and the only PMC veteran. While this will be his fourth time doing the ride, the last time was in 2018.

O’Shea said while playing golf with Massaro and some other friends last summer, he was lamenting that he hadn’t signed up to do the ride again, and broached the idea of doing the PMC in 2024 to honor Kerrie. “It’s gonna be fun … especially when you finish,” O’Shea said.

“I’m in,” Massaro responded immediately, and his conviction never faltered. Dana-Farber was one of the places where Kerrie had received treatment for breast cancer, and honoring her through a fundraiser that is also an athletic challenge also seemed appropriate since she was a gifted athlete who was an “All-New England” soccer player in college and taught physical education and health at Conard High School along with coaching the girls soccer team for 16 years, six of which were as head coach of the varsity team.

What seemed like a great idea on the golf course last August started to become a bit more of reality once they had to sign up. The event fills up, so all committed months ago.

All but one of the WeHa Team members – who include O’Shea, Mike Mahon, Mike O’Connor, Ben Leyland, Mark Jamin, and Andrew Roth – have children who had been taught or coached at Conard by Kerrie. Roth is the only non-West Hartford resident (he lives in Farmington) but his connection is that he was the former college roommate of West Hartford Town Manager Rick Ledwith, whose family has been close friends with the Massaros and the families of the other team members for years.

“We’re all golfing friends,” Massaro said, but training has cut back on their golfing this summer. None considered themselves truly accomplished cyclists previously, and several members of the team even had to buy new bikes before beginning their training and get used to riding a road bike and clip-in pedals.

The PMC has various routes that the roughly 6,500 participants in 2024 can follow, and it changes a bit each year. The West Hartford group is doing the longest route – roughly 186 miles over the course of two days. They will line up at 5 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3, in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The first day is the longest, at 109 miles.

They will stay overnight Saturday in the dorms at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne. There’s no air-conditioning, but all agreed that it’s a better option than sleeping in a tent.

Day 2 begins between 5 and 6 a.m. Sunday and includes a trip over the Bourne Bridge onto Cape Cod. The bridge is closed to traffic from 5 to 6:15 a.m. (Warning to any early morning vacation travelers).

At some point on Sunday, Aug. 4, they will complete the ride in Provincetown, Massachusetts. But it’s another 12 miles of riding to reach the celebration party, O’Shea told his teammates on Monday. He did not seem to be joking.

“Hopefully it doesn’t rain,” O’Shea said. One year it poured, he said, and some of the participants got hypothermia.

Most of the route is on paved roads, and it is relatively flat although there are some rolling hills on the first day and the ascent to the Bourne Bridge is also a hill.

There are rest stops every 20 to 30 miles, said O’Shea. One of them even has ice couches which provide great relief after hours in a bike seat.

“If you had told me I’d be riding 75 hours and 1,000 miles …” O’Connor said of the training that he has done thus far. The group has been training for about the past eight weeks, as many as possible together as a group on weekends. They put in a lot of their miles on the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, starting around 6 or 6:30 a.m. and riding from Farmington to Westfield, MA, and back.

Roth said he has logged about 900 miles of training.

“It’s going to be inspirational, and that’s what gets you through,” Roth said.

The other challenge is that there is a minimum fundraising goal of $6,000 per participant. “This is the single biggest athletic fundraiser in the world,” O’Shea said. Many corporations, including the employers of some of the team members, providing matching funds and most are close to their goal.

The PMC is now in its 45th year, and earlier this month topped the $1 billion mark in funds raised.

The WeHa Team affiliated with Team Brent, which has been participating in the PMC for 20 years and has the experience with logistics surrounding an event like this. Team Brent – named for the original organizer’s son who was being treated for a childhood cancer at the time (and is now a college student) – is based in Fairfield County and has raised more than $7 million over the years. Including the seven from West Hartford, they currently have a total of 48 members and have chosen the lobster as their theme for this year. All of the members will have a lobster design on their helmets.

Mahon said that the worst thing that has happened during the training is that O’Shea ran over a chipmunk on a long downhill stretch. “It was Charlie the Chipmunk … I’ve never seen anybody give mouth-to-mouth to a chipmunk,” he joked.

The team has great camaraderie, and they clearly enjoy each other’s company – but all joking aside, they believe in what they are doing.

Kerrie received great support from family, friends, and her medical team as she fought breast cancer. “My daughters and I are committed to doing what we can to be part of eradicating breast cancer and all cancers and this is one step to help complete the ongoing mission,” Massaro wrote in a post about his participation in the fundraiser on his Facebook page. “Dana-Farber was part of her team and we love that 100% of rider-raised revenue goes directly to support the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s commitment to finding a cure. I know we all are asked to contribute to many worthwhile causes, I greatly appreciate your consideration and support by donating.”

According to the PMC website, “100% of all rider-raised funds go directly to cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund. The PMC is Dana-Farber’s single largest supporter and is 62%of the Jimmy Fund’s annual revenue.

“You hear people’s stories, and you know you’re probably going to be in tears,” Massaro said. And as added inspiration for him and his teammates, two of Kerrie’s sisters live along the route, and will join thousands of others cheering for the riders.

O’Connor used Facebook and email to ask for fundraising support, and said he was overcome by the stories people shared. “It’s amazing how generous people are, and how many people have been affected [by cancer].”

A few of the members of the WeHa Team still need to raise a bit more to reach the $6,000 goal, and you can click here to find their donation pages on the PMC website or choose the names of individual riders here.