I ride for everyone who has been impacted by cancer, but most especially my mom. She was the epitome of health before her cancer diagnosis at age 48: regularly running marathons, doing boot camps, traveling the world and enjoying time with her friends & family. Her motto to “DO GOOD THINGS” inspired me to participate in Pelotonia back in 2019.

Sadly, mom’s battle with cancer ended in September 2020. I struggled with feeling helpless throughout her battle, but I soon realized that the best way for me to honor her legacy and fight back against cancer was to continue to fundraise for cancer research.

Fundraising can seem intimidating at first, but I have found that my friends, family, co-workers, and even complete strangers have been more than happy to support my fundraising efforts when asked. Many of them share similar stories of how cancer has impacted their lives. Some even ride with me now!

Through all my efforts, utilizing social media (mainly Facebook and Instagram) has been my biggest fundraising tool.

Below are the main ways I’ve fundraised through social media:

And this year I decided to set a very unique and challenging goal inspired by my mom: receive one donation from someone in all 50 states. I posted updates on social media every day and sent targeted messages to friends and family in states I still needed. Eventually, I realized that my network was missing some states, so I shifted gears to asking for help spreading the word or simply sharing my story with complete strangers.

Some states were harder than others (ahem… South Dakota!), but I was able to get a donation from all 50 states in just under two months! This helped me raised over $3,000 and also helped spread the message of Pelotonia’s ONE GOAL across the entire country.

Pelotonia made a template for others to use, and I have seen a handful of other Legends accomplish this goal themselves.

In summary, don’t be afraid to ask your network for donations, be creative, tell your personal story, put the “fun” in FUNdraising, utilize all of Pelotonia’s amazing resources, and never stop DOING GOOD THINGS!