Needham girl pedals on in memory of her father
NEEDHAM - For five years before his death, despite doctor visits and chemotherapy, Jay Zeiger pedaled his bike to support cancer care and research.
On Father’s Day tomorrow, his daughter, Emma, will do the same.
The 11-year-old from Needham will ride her bicycle for 90 minutes in a circular route more than a mile long in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge Kids Ride for Newton and Needham. The children’s summer bike-a-thon is one of 40 held throughout six states to raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“I will be happy to see all the money we raise, but it will also be sad because everyone will be there with their fathers, and I don’t have one to be with,’’ said Emma, a vivacious girl with light brown hair and a smile that beamed brightest when she spoke of her father.
She designed a T-shirt to wear in memory of him for the ride.
“I made it purple because that was his favorite color,’’ she said.
Her father was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in February 2002. During the next five years, even when he was later diagnosed with melanoma, he rode in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge Mission, a cycling challenge for participants over the age of 15 stretching 190 miles across the state. Cancer wasn’t going to stop Jay Zeiger from doing anything else in his life, said his wife, Karen.
“He made us feel stronger,’’ she said. “Nobody felt sorry for him or us.’’
Emma said she remembers gathering with her mother and brother to send her father off on his rides and then to welcome him back home. Completing the children’s cycling challenge will be her way of representing him, she said. Her father taught her how to ride the same year he was first diagnosed with cancer.
“I remember one time I fell down and I didn’t really want to get on anymore, but I did,’’ said Emma. “My dad would hold the back of my bike for a little bit and then let me go.’’
Tomorrow will be the third year Emma participates in the children’s ride in honor of her father, she said.
“I’m going to keep raising as much money as I can; I am not going to stop,’’ she said. “I want to give hope to others who are struggling.’’
More than 7,000 children will participate in tomorrow’s rides in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. The minimum amount each is required to raise is $25.
Emma raised $5,000 this year by e-mailing and sending letters to friends and family. She has raised more than $15,000 the past two years she has participated, she said.
“Even though she is seven years younger then me, I look up to her,’’ said her 18-year-old brother, Max. “She has been a great source of inspiration to a lot of people.’’
All proceeds collected from both Pan-Massachusetts Challenge bike rides go to Dana-Farber’s Jimmy Fund. This year, Patrick Byrne, chief executive of
“That’s a pretty powerful statement to the kids and to the adults,’’ said Billy Starr, the group’s executive director. Starr founded the cycling challenge in 1980.
The children’s bike-a-thons began in 1998 when 8-year-old Ryan Wilkinson was told he was too young to ride in the cross-state mission. He and his family organized the first official children’s Pan-Mass Challenge in Medfield.
“It is such a great feeling to know kids even younger than I was when I started can have this very, very strong feeling of accomplishment and know that they are helping make a difference in other people’s lives,’’ said Wilkins, now 18.
Meanwhile, Emma is thinking ahead to completing the larger challenge when she is older and stronger, she said. “What keeps me coming back is that I don’t want anyone else to lose someone,’’ she said. “I don’t want anyone else to feel the way I do.’’ 