Looking at interesting holidays and celebrations is fun. I have often blogged about unusual or obscure holidays that coincide with my blog post days. May 27th this year finds two little-known but important holidays, World MS Day and National Senior and Health Fitness Day. These days aren’t always on the 27th, but on the last Wednesday of May. However, I’m not going to go into detail about them. If you are interested in learning more about them, you can click on the links.
Today I’d like to talk about May as National Bike Month. Here I am ready to take a ride. 
I live near Tucson, Arizona, where they have the El Tour de Tucson, an annual bicycle race. I do not ride in this event. In fact, I don’t make as much use of my bike as I should, but there are many, many people in the area who ride daily. It is not unusual to see bicyclist riding in the numerous bike lanes around town.
What does bicycling have to do with writing or books? In my case, I’m working on a new novel, A LOVE TO CALL MINE, which is set in Massachusetts where they hold the Pan Massachusetts Challenge. It is a bike ride used to raise money for cancer research. My heroine, Heather Watson, is an oncology nurse, and she rides in this event in memory of her grandfather, who died from cancer.
I learned about the Pan Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) from a neighbor we had when we lived in Massachusetts. When she first participated in the event, she asked me to be one of her sponsors as she rode to honor her step-mother who had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Last year she rode in memory of her brother who died from cancer. Millions of dollars have been raised for cancer research by the people who ride in the PMC.
Have you ever participated in a fundraising event? What was it for, and what did you do?
After serving six years in prison for the false charge of manslaughter in the death of his wife, Kurt Jansen must overcome a world of bitterness if he wants to start a new life. But his first priority is securing a restoration job to pay a private investigator to find the real killer and a lawyer to get his kids back.
Hiring a convicted wife-killer isn’t what kind-hearted Molly Finnerty bargains for as part of the prison ministry she supports. However, she begins to believe Kurt’s claim of innocence and gradually finds a great deal to like about him—perhaps more to like than she should.
Can they overcome the past and find forgiveness and love?
Merrillee Whren is an award-winning author who writes inspirational romance. She is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award for best inspirational romance manuscript presented by Romance Writers of America. She has also been the recipient of the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of thirty plus years, and has two grown daughters. She has lived in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Florida but now makes her home in the Arizona desert. When she’s not writing, she spends her free time playing tennis or walking while she does the plotting for her novels.
Thanks for this post! I am trying to decide whether to participate in a bike ride for pancreatic cancer research. Think I’ll read your book and get inspired! When does A Love to Call Mine come out?
What a neat post – I love the odd little celebrations during the year. I haven’t done a bike ride, but for many, many years I participated in the Walk for Life to support our local Crisis Pregnancy Center. And when I was a kid I loved the American Heart Association Jump Rope-A-Thon. I loved jumping rope before my joints got crazy :)
The Pan Massachusetts Challenge sounds like a wonderful cause to support! And a great way to get some exercise riding your bike. I’m not sure if we have anything like that here in our little town, I guess I’d have to look it up. There are so many great causes out there to participate in! We’ve never participated in any fund-raisers, but my husband is a regular blood donor for the Red Cross and also is on the bone marrow transplant list. If he was to ever be a match for someone needing bone marrow, he’d be the first one they’d call. I guess in a way, it does support a good cause :-)
“A Love to Call Mine” sounds like a wonderful story!
My husband is riding in the Ride to Remember for Alzheimer’s Research in July. It is 252 miles over 3 days.
act.alz.org/goto/bdlube
Our kids and I go along the route to help with water stops and such. It is a GREAT experience, and an awesome cause.
Lee, I finally got the link to work. Yay! A Love to Call Mine comes out whenever I get the thing done. It’s my second indie book, and I’ve been working on it in between my LI books. I hope it will be available sometime in the early fall.
Elizabeth, my kids did the Jump Rope-A-Thon, too, and my older daughter did the Walk for Life when she was in high school.
Trixi, blood donors and bone marrow transplant donors are so important. In the book, A Love to Call Mine, my hero needs a bone marrow transplant.
MommaSith, that is a long bike ride. The PMC is a two day ride, the longest part being about 175 miles, I believe. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, Merrillee that is sure interesting! I don’t know if I could ever go through donating bone marrow, I have a hard time with blood donations. I’m a very squeamish person when it comes to needles and especially the sight of blood! In fact, when I was pregnant with my son, they had to draw blood for routine testing and I passed out right there in the chair! Yikes!! I think it’s a great cause though, there is quite a demand for blood sometimes. Thanks for letting me know about the hero in “A Love to Call Mine”! Blessings to you :-)