May 1, 2025 • 9 mins
We spoke with Chris Nikolis, co-coordinator of the Suffield PMC Kids Ride about the upcoming event.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest this morning is Chris Nicolis, co coordinator of the
Suftfield PMC Kids Ride.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, Good morning Alison, thank you very much for
having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Absolutely we're here to talk about the twenty twenty five
Suftfield PMC Kids Ride. It's taking place on Saturday, May tenth.
Let's talk about it. Take me through the day. How
will everything go well?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hopefully with sunshine which we don't have in most years,
but doesn't really take away from the event, so I
have been checking the forecast here in those ten days out.
We'll have registration nine to ten with music and we're
in a playground, so they'll be play going on as
the kids check in drop off their bikes. They have
a local bike shop on site to make any adjustments
and at play tires as needed. We'll start the ride
(00:48):
at ten. We'll gather we'll hopefully be one hundred or
so kids for the ride that day, of all ages.
We have a parking lot, traffic circle that's all according
off for the little kids which is great, and applied
mile loop for the older kids. So we'll start them
a couple of minutes separated from each other and they'll
ride for an hour or as much of the hour
(01:08):
as they want. We'll have mascots from local sports teams there,
we have a band that will play, we have face painters,
food for everybody, healthy food like pizza and ice cream,
which and you'll have a lot of fun doing it.
And we ride for an hour, then we have a
lunch and a check presentation and all kinds of good
(01:29):
things for probably ninety minutes to two hours, and then
by one o'clock we're all packed up and cleaned up
and it's like we were never there. But in the
meantime we would help to announce another huge donation to
the Jerry Fudd and we sure have a lot of
fun doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
And this is at McAllister School.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah. McAllister and Suffield Middle School share a parking lot,
so we sort of us both, but we're based on
McAllister and it's a great location force. We have great
cooperation from so many people in town, including Selfield Police
that help us. The road closed except for local traffic
for that for that hour. We have dozens and dozens
(02:07):
of volunteers. Someone bikes summer stationary keeping an eye on
our riders. And make sure we have a big, smooth
and safe day. And over thirteen years we've done just that,
So it's really become an important event in town. And
it's just with a lot of gratitude that we're able
to do this each year and raise money for a
great cause of the Jamie Fund and Data Harbor.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So thirteen years ago somebody decided to do this, How
did it all come about?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, I'm trying to be brief. So I started riding
the Panamas Challenge in two thousand and nine. That's the
first week in in August. We have six thousand up
to sixty five hundred now riders, cyclists that will ride
across the city of Massachusetts, short rides and long rides.
I ride from Sturbridge to Bourne, mass and Born to Provincetown,
so that that's one hundred and ninety two miles. I
(02:54):
also ride in from my house to day Before and Suffield,
so for me it's about two hundred and forty miles
over forty hours. Verus that that first week in August
hadn't ridden out a road bike, didn't have a roadbike
when I signed up. Obviously familiar with the Jimmy Fund
and the great work they do, and there was there
was a challenge that I was I was eager to
take on. It was a nervous in that first year,
but I fell in love with it right away and
(03:17):
it's you know, I haven't missed a year since and
don't plan on missing very many going forward. The Kids
Ride were started by PMC to bring a new generation
of people into the event and into the cause. Much
smaller courses and but set up in the same way
in terms of the amount of fund we have that
day and all goes to the same place. So each
year between twenty and thirty Kids Rides happened. We're the
(03:39):
only one in Connecticut still we are. I'm proud to
say that the top fundraising Kids Ride each of the
last two years, which is which is gratifying, and it's
really meant just to open up the opportunity to help
the folks at being the Farber through the Jimmy Fund
in as many different ways as possible. And as I'm
(04:00):
onto saying, I don't generally talk about my ride unless
I'm asked about it, but for the Kids Ride, I'm
shameless about asking for opportunities to discuss it, to spread
the word about it to gather sponsors and raffle letters,
and that's what brought me here today to speak with you,
and I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
That's my pleasure. So if anybody would like to donate
a raffle item for the auction, or if they'd like
to become a sponsor, they can go to kids dot
PMC dot org slash Suftfield again, that's kids dot PMC
dot org slash Suffield.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It's our maintage. You can go there to sign up
to ride, to volunteer, to donate. You can also find
us on Facebook at Suffield PMC Kids Ride and that's
really where we're chronicle everything that we do all year,
the ride connected events, which I'm sure we'll talk about
here in a minute. And you know, you can message
me directly through there. There's a different ways to get
(04:56):
a hold of me. I'm glad to take any questions
and the more than marrier. We'd never turned down a rider, obviously,
we never turned down a volunteer. If someone has a
big item or small item for our raffle and auction,
we can turn pretty much anything into money for the
Jimmy Fund and it's helped us get to the fundraising
total that we have in front of us.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So you mentioned there are other events that you have, well, yeah,
you know.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
We have the kids Ride, which is the main focus
of it. We have pasta dinners each year. We have
an ongoing cannon bottle drive which raises just an insane
amount of money, all to the same cause. We've actually
hosted a country music show the last three years in
Suffield with a Suffield resident by the name of Jordan Oaks.
He now lives in Nashville. For anyone that is interested,
(05:40):
has heard any of George's music or want to hear
He's not available on all streaming platforms. We're going to
we're putting the finishing touches on the fourth show later
this year. So we wanted to find a way to
get certainly do the ride, but have other people get
involved that they may not have kids, they may not
ride bikes, they want to help in different ways. We've
designed the whole thing just to be a lot of
(06:01):
fun for whatever the event might be, and that's helped
us raise the money.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
We have so far that is just amazing. Tell me,
what do you hope people walk away with the day
of the event when it's over.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, we want them to have fun. We want them
hopefully they're coming with their families and their friends. You know,
the sports leagues in Talent are really making a big
push to get the lacrosse team players from all ages
there in their jerseys, and Little League is doing the
same thing. So that's exciting. I want them to have
a fun day. Realize they're coming together to towards the cause,
(06:34):
so you know, that part really matters. And as we
have a lot of young kids, they may not all
be familiar with what cancer is or means, which which
quite frankly is a good thing. But to know that
they've come together to help people and to work together
and to raise a lot of money, you know for
the doctors and nurses and researchers that are really you know,
driving towards the day when this thing is no longer
(06:58):
something we all have to deal with and most of
us do unfortunately, so you know, we take a lot
of pride of what it means. In the town. Everyone
helps us police, fire, all the schools, the superintendent, all
the sports leagues, rotary chamber, like there's not a single
group in town that doesn't do something either, donate or
volunteer or provide products and services. You know, we go
(07:20):
to public works the day before and basically take what
we need to make the event happen and bring it
all back again. So people just can't do enough to help,
and we'd be nowhere without all of them, and we're
very appreciative of of what they do to make all
this happen.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
How has participating in this event positively affected your life?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, it's been the best thing I do other than
my family. You know, my mom is a thirty year survivor.
I lost my dad ten years ago. I had already
started writing before that, but that's when this whole thing
really got ramped up. So I know what it means
to me in my family. We've had other families in town,
(08:00):
friends and family elsewhere. So many of us have felt
the impact of what this. You know, what cancer can
do to families and to loved ones. So it's it's
provided me with a great platform to honor my dad
and my mom and my grandfather and others. And it's
just it's nice to be able to actively do something
(08:20):
to hope and work towards the day when this no
longer happens to other people. You know, that's there's a
lot of emotion that goes into it in terms of
just a lot of pride in what the Kids Right
has become and the fact now that I'll be writing
my seventeenth Pan Mass Challenge and the people I've met,
the friends I've made through that, it's all, it's all
very gratifying and knowing that we're at this point with
(08:43):
both efforts combined over eight hundred thousand dollars race for
the Jimmy Fund. It's it's really it's great. It's heartwarming.
We see so much good in this world from so
many people that are doing great things for so many
different causes, and we're just really happy that this many
people have jumped on board and supported us year after
(09:05):
year in terms of our volunteers and others that you
can't wait to be a part of it. And it's great.
I mean, there's really there's nothing better. And this I
said at the start, other than my family. It's the
best thing that I'll ever get to do in my life,
and you're not plan to do it as long it
need it.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I'm speaking with Chris nicolis Co, coordinator of the Sufffield
PMC Kids Ride. It's taking place on Saturday, May tenth.
You can go to kids dot PMC dot org, slash
suffield to register, to donate, to volunteer, and to find
out more about it. Thank you so much for being
here today and for all of the amazing work that
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Thanks Alison, I appreciate the opportunity, and I hope we'll
get a big crowd out on the tenth and have
another another great day to put us a step closer
to a world without cancer.
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest this morning is Chris Nicolis, co coordinator of the
Suftfield PMC Kids Ride.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, Good morning Alison, thank you very much for
having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Absolutely we're here to talk about the twenty twenty five
Suftfield PMC Kids Ride. It's taking place on Saturday, May tenth.
Let's talk about it. Take me through the day. How
will everything go well?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hopefully with sunshine which we don't have in most years,
but doesn't really take away from the event, so I
have been checking the forecast here in those ten days out.
We'll have registration nine to ten with music and we're
in a playground, so they'll be play going on as
the kids check in drop off their bikes. They have
a local bike shop on site to make any adjustments
and at play tires as needed. We'll start the ride
(00:48):
at ten. We'll gather we'll hopefully be one hundred or
so kids for the ride that day, of all ages.
We have a parking lot, traffic circle that's all according
off for the little kids which is great, and applied
mile loop for the older kids. So we'll start them
a couple of minutes separated from each other and they'll
ride for an hour or as much of the hour
(01:08):
as they want. We'll have mascots from local sports teams there,
we have a band that will play, we have face painters,
food for everybody, healthy food like pizza and ice cream,
which and you'll have a lot of fun doing it.
And we ride for an hour, then we have a
lunch and a check presentation and all kinds of good
(01:29):
things for probably ninety minutes to two hours, and then
by one o'clock we're all packed up and cleaned up
and it's like we were never there. But in the
meantime we would help to announce another huge donation to
the Jerry Fudd and we sure have a lot of
fun doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
And this is at McAllister School.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah. McAllister and Suffield Middle School share a parking lot,
so we sort of us both, but we're based on
McAllister and it's a great location force. We have great
cooperation from so many people in town, including Selfield Police
that help us. The road closed except for local traffic
for that for that hour. We have dozens and dozens
(02:07):
of volunteers. Someone bikes summer stationary keeping an eye on
our riders. And make sure we have a big, smooth
and safe day. And over thirteen years we've done just that,
So it's really become an important event in town. And
it's just with a lot of gratitude that we're able
to do this each year and raise money for a
great cause of the Jamie Fund and Data Harbor.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So thirteen years ago somebody decided to do this, How
did it all come about?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, I'm trying to be brief. So I started riding
the Panamas Challenge in two thousand and nine. That's the
first week in in August. We have six thousand up
to sixty five hundred now riders, cyclists that will ride
across the city of Massachusetts, short rides and long rides.
I ride from Sturbridge to Bourne, mass and Born to Provincetown,
so that that's one hundred and ninety two miles. I
(02:54):
also ride in from my house to day Before and Suffield,
so for me it's about two hundred and forty miles
over forty hours. Verus that that first week in August
hadn't ridden out a road bike, didn't have a roadbike
when I signed up. Obviously familiar with the Jimmy Fund
and the great work they do, and there was there
was a challenge that I was I was eager to
take on. It was a nervous in that first year,
but I fell in love with it right away and
(03:17):
it's you know, I haven't missed a year since and
don't plan on missing very many going forward. The Kids
Ride were started by PMC to bring a new generation
of people into the event and into the cause. Much
smaller courses and but set up in the same way
in terms of the amount of fund we have that
day and all goes to the same place. So each
year between twenty and thirty Kids Rides happened. We're the
(03:39):
only one in Connecticut still we are. I'm proud to
say that the top fundraising Kids Ride each of the
last two years, which is which is gratifying, and it's
really meant just to open up the opportunity to help
the folks at being the Farber through the Jimmy Fund
in as many different ways as possible. And as I'm
(04:00):
onto saying, I don't generally talk about my ride unless
I'm asked about it, but for the Kids Ride, I'm
shameless about asking for opportunities to discuss it, to spread
the word about it to gather sponsors and raffle letters,
and that's what brought me here today to speak with you,
and I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
That's my pleasure. So if anybody would like to donate
a raffle item for the auction, or if they'd like
to become a sponsor, they can go to kids dot
PMC dot org slash Suftfield again, that's kids dot PMC
dot org slash Suffield.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It's our maintage. You can go there to sign up
to ride, to volunteer, to donate. You can also find
us on Facebook at Suffield PMC Kids Ride and that's
really where we're chronicle everything that we do all year,
the ride connected events, which I'm sure we'll talk about
here in a minute. And you know, you can message
me directly through there. There's a different ways to get
(04:56):
a hold of me. I'm glad to take any questions
and the more than marrier. We'd never turned down a rider, obviously,
we never turned down a volunteer. If someone has a
big item or small item for our raffle and auction,
we can turn pretty much anything into money for the
Jimmy Fund and it's helped us get to the fundraising
total that we have in front of us.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So you mentioned there are other events that you have, well, yeah,
you know.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
We have the kids Ride, which is the main focus
of it. We have pasta dinners each year. We have
an ongoing cannon bottle drive which raises just an insane
amount of money, all to the same cause. We've actually
hosted a country music show the last three years in
Suffield with a Suffield resident by the name of Jordan Oaks.
He now lives in Nashville. For anyone that is interested,
(05:40):
has heard any of George's music or want to hear
He's not available on all streaming platforms. We're going to
we're putting the finishing touches on the fourth show later
this year. So we wanted to find a way to
get certainly do the ride, but have other people get
involved that they may not have kids, they may not
ride bikes, they want to help in different ways. We've
designed the whole thing just to be a lot of
(06:01):
fun for whatever the event might be, and that's helped
us raise the money.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
We have so far that is just amazing. Tell me,
what do you hope people walk away with the day
of the event when it's over.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, we want them to have fun. We want them
hopefully they're coming with their families and their friends. You know,
the sports leagues in Talent are really making a big
push to get the lacrosse team players from all ages
there in their jerseys, and Little League is doing the
same thing. So that's exciting. I want them to have
a fun day. Realize they're coming together to towards the cause,
(06:34):
so you know, that part really matters. And as we
have a lot of young kids, they may not all
be familiar with what cancer is or means, which which
quite frankly is a good thing. But to know that
they've come together to help people and to work together
and to raise a lot of money, you know for
the doctors and nurses and researchers that are really you know,
driving towards the day when this thing is no longer
(06:58):
something we all have to deal with and most of
us do unfortunately, so you know, we take a lot
of pride of what it means. In the town. Everyone
helps us police, fire, all the schools, the superintendent, all
the sports leagues, rotary chamber, like there's not a single
group in town that doesn't do something either, donate or
volunteer or provide products and services. You know, we go
(07:20):
to public works the day before and basically take what
we need to make the event happen and bring it
all back again. So people just can't do enough to help,
and we'd be nowhere without all of them, and we're
very appreciative of of what they do to make all
this happen.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
How has participating in this event positively affected your life?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, it's been the best thing I do other than
my family. You know, my mom is a thirty year survivor.
I lost my dad ten years ago. I had already
started writing before that, but that's when this whole thing
really got ramped up. So I know what it means
to me in my family. We've had other families in town,
(08:00):
friends and family elsewhere. So many of us have felt
the impact of what this. You know, what cancer can
do to families and to loved ones. So it's it's
provided me with a great platform to honor my dad
and my mom and my grandfather and others. And it's
just it's nice to be able to actively do something
(08:20):
to hope and work towards the day when this no
longer happens to other people. You know, that's there's a
lot of emotion that goes into it in terms of
just a lot of pride in what the Kids Right
has become and the fact now that I'll be writing
my seventeenth Pan Mass Challenge and the people I've met,
the friends I've made through that, it's all, it's all
very gratifying and knowing that we're at this point with
(08:43):
both efforts combined over eight hundred thousand dollars race for
the Jimmy Fund. It's it's really it's great. It's heartwarming.
We see so much good in this world from so
many people that are doing great things for so many
different causes, and we're just really happy that this many
people have jumped on board and supported us year after
(09:05):
year in terms of our volunteers and others that you
can't wait to be a part of it. And it's great.
I mean, there's really there's nothing better. And this I
said at the start, other than my family. It's the
best thing that I'll ever get to do in my life,
and you're not plan to do it as long it
need it.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I'm speaking with Chris nicolis Co, coordinator of the Sufffield
PMC Kids Ride. It's taking place on Saturday, May tenth.
You can go to kids dot PMC dot org, slash
suffield to register, to donate, to volunteer, and to find
out more about it. Thank you so much for being
here today and for all of the amazing work that
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Thanks Alison, I appreciate the opportunity, and I hope we'll
get a big crowd out on the tenth and have
another another great day to put us a step closer
to a world without cancer.
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