 Hi, I'm Tom Handel with another CTN member highlight, and this time we're featuring the Cancer Community Center because they're going to be doing an event called Cycle for Care. And I'm here with the executive director of the Cancer Community Center, Kathy Young. And also Eva Mattson, one of the co-hosts of the morning show at Coast 93.1, where Coast is also a sponsor of the event. So thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Before we get into talking about this very unique event, Kathy, would you share a little bit about what the Cancer Community Center is all about? Sure. The center is located in South Portland, but it serves Greater Portland, really Cumberland County, and in many ways it supports the whole state of Maine for anyone affected by cancer. And the reason I say the whole state of Maine is we have a very unique buddy program, which is a match. So if you've been recently diagnosed and I've had that cancer, we'd be matched, and you could call me and talk through specifics about how to get some support around your cancer experience. So that serves the state of Maine. Great reducer of boundaries for rural folks. It's a phenomenal program. But locally here in Portland, we offer support groups and wellness programs, education, classes, Tai Chi. We really are looking to support the cancer survivor, but also the whole family. It's for those affected by cancer. So your brother, your partner, co-worker, they're bereaved. We offer a bereavement group. So it's really to the whole community. And we know that everybody's affected by cancer. Exactly. As I was just about to say. The audience is large. So how many people about approximately do you serve in the course of a year? Oh, thousands. It's kind of hard to track. But yes, absolutely. The bodies, many people come back. Many people come for periods of time and then feel like they've had their experience and they've managed whatever it is they need to manage through. But then they might come back again and miss some of the folks. So there's about five to 700 that we see on a regular basis. And then there's a natural ebb and flow. And now this cycle for care is one of your annual events that's coming about right now. What's it all about? Can you describe it a little bit? Sure. Eva's been in it. I haven't. I'm still fairly new. Seven months in the chair as executive director. But it is one of our four major fundraising events because the other thing about the center that I forgot to mention is all of our services are free. So how we do that is we have significant fundraising events like this. And we try to look for the extra spin, the little bit different, and an indoor spinning event in the winter in Maine is something that we think is unique. And people have a lot of fun at it, so I'm told. And it sounds great. But it's exactly that. Indoor spin bikes in the gymnasium at UNE for eight hours. You can come and you can be like me and just pedal. That's what I'm intending to do. Or like yourself I hear last year, giving it your all. So folks like Eva will call it out and do the real spin class thing. Yeah. I did participate last year, but I understand you've been involved for three years. This will be my third year. I do some of the hosting, just kind of getting people revved up and ready in between the classes as the instructors switch off. And then I also happen to be a spin teacher. So, you know, it's definitely in my wheelhouse. And you know, it's a great way to give back and it's a fun room because it's a mixture of people. Some people may, you know, know me a lot of people don't. People are nervous. People are excited. And we get to, A, spread the gospel of a cancer community center, beloved to me personally as a cancer survivor, and also have fun in kind of a unique way. We have a lot of fundraising, races and things here in the state of Maine, but this is one of my favorites. Yeah. I was kind of amazed when I first started doing the spinning and I thought, okay, let me pace myself and then the music started and then it started to be fun. And even though I started to get a little sweaty, I thought this is really great. And then all of a sudden, it was over. The first hour was over. It wasn't quite an hour. No, 15 minutes. Yeah. You can stay for another hour. Yeah. Right. Paying for your bike. Yeah. We encourage you. Four hours, you know? Yeah. And so how does the money get raised? You were just starting to mention that. Yeah. Well, you essentially buy your hour on the bike. Register. You can pledge to go one, two, three, four hours a whole late. Form a team and maybe do the whole eight with a group of three or four. We're going to have, there's food and there's other things going on, information, we have a tribute wall, we might have a masseuse. And so there's stuff to go, you know, if you decide to do an hour, wait, do another hour. But you go online, you register, you decide, you know, what you want to do. And then if you're really keen and you understand and support us, you form a fundraising page and invite your friends who are too lazy to come out and join you to support your effort. There's a lot. There's a lot of, I was impressed, there's a lot of organizations and groups in those organizations involved. Who's involved and how much actually do you raise doing this? We're hoping to, the goal is 30,000. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Because it's beautiful. UNE doesn't charge us for the space. It's, you know, all the bikes are donated by local corporations, Hannaford, CIE, Anthem, trying to think of some others, local gyms. So it's, and local muscle is driving the bikes around for us to come up and drop mob. I love those guys. And so, yeah, it's a wonderful community. Everybody contributes, lots of food is donated, so there's stuff to eat all the time. So it really is, all the money that comes in goes to the center and all the money that goes to the center supports community programming for free too. And why did the Coast 93.1 decide to get involved with this? I think Cancer Community Center first came to me because they knew that I taught SPIN, and they were the first call that I got when I was diagnosed. I got diagnosed on the air, it'll be 10 years this October. So I was doing a mammogram, you know, taking one for the team on the air. And so my whole journey was on the air. So I feel like, you know, this, I'm truly part of this community. And so I said, yeah, I'd love to teach SPIN, and so, and then I was able to bring the station in because we are a female, you know, targeted station. That is our demo. And that's great because you see the young college kids that come in, and they're looking, you know, they're looking around to see who else is there. And then you see teams from companies come in, and you don't have to be someone who does spinning all the time. You know, there is a little, some exercise. You can go really slow, like grandma. Or if you do some other kind of exercise, how about to change it up for a good cause? I mean, no one's going to kick you off the bike. No one's going to come over and turn your little thing up. So, you know, it really is a win-win. And you get to come out and support the Cancer Community Center. I mean, this is a small state. This is not the wealthiest state in terms of money and social programs. And I mean, we have this amazing resource that, you know, you need a wig. You need the buddy system, you know, like you have this cancer and you don't always want to go to a book or go online or something. You know, you have a real feeling. This morning, I'm feeling this thing, you know, and they're like, I get it. Okay, let me, you know what? You don't realize until you're in that moment how important that tactile resource is in our back, in our backyard. And they do everything. It's a new language you have to learn. What do you say? You have cancer, I have cancer, I have my T cells. Da, da, da, da, da, da. You know, you know, the lines and this and clean margins. And you're like, whoa, you know, I didn't sign up for this Rosetta Stone thing. So, having the Cancer Community Center, I mean, I'll do whatever they ask. Because I think it is such a valuable resource and I don't think every city is as lucky as we are. I imagine that people are pretty responsive to your call because, like you're saying, not just there are so many people, there are also people who are related to people. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I have cancer in my family. I don't know who doesn't. So, what if people are out there, they didn't know about this, they want to get involved. How do they get more information? How do they find out about it? Go to our website, CancerCommunityCenter.org. And look for Cycle for Care. It's on, it's got its own page in events. And it's actually on the main homepage, Cycle for Care. And it's also on your Facebook page as well. Yeah, yeah, we're Facebook friends, become a friend. Like the page, yeah, it's right there. So that you find out what else we're doing. But that's, go to the website and sign up online. You could come in and get a registration form if you're old school and we love old school. You mean, just drop in on the day of the event and have it done. Oh, sure, you could do that as well. They're not as guaranteed to get the bike and the hour that you want. So part of registering online is indicating what you want. So CancerCommunityCenter.org. And it's January 30th, four to midnight. It's a Friday night, end of the work week. Oh yeah, a fun time. Yeah, bring your, that's what I think, a team. You got your workmates together going out. And you're just, you're actually just buying the hour so that you could just go sit on the bike and not do a thing. That's right. Do your pizza on the bike if you want. Well, who donated all that food, by the way, remember? Oh, all the local, locals, Pat's Pizza and Mr. Bagel and all the neighborhood. It's a really good energy. I can attest to that. It's really lots of fun. Well, we'll see you there, right? Probably. Probably. We'll wind up again since you're CancerCommunityCenter as a member. It happens, I've scaled walls for a seat here. But thanks a lot for joining us. I think it'll be really fun. We'll look forward to seeing you then. Yeah, we're looking forward to it too.