Helpers Among Us - Rebecca Vernaglia rides PMC to raise funds for Dana-Farber

You may have missed 19-year-old resident Rebecca Vernaglia because she whizzes by on her bicycle at a fast clip. Vernaglia recently put her hobby to good use when she rode in this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge, and raised more than $6,000 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

“I really like to ride,” says Vernaglia, “and during COVID, I biked a lot. I really got into it when I was at Winchester High.”

Volunteering runs in her family — her father, Brian, has served on several town boards and is now chair of the Planning Board. Her mother, Shannon Scott-Vernaglia, is on the Board of Health. 

Even as a small child, Vernaglia volunteered with her bicycle. 

“I was in first or second grade,” she says, “and I rode around the neighbor with PMC Kids.” 

Vernaglia started riding for the PMC last year, and she even knitted stuffed animals and offered them to her first five donors. 

The ride is grueling, according to Vernaglia. 

“We had to get up at 5 a.m. so I could be at the starting line in Wellesley on time.  But you forget it’s so early because volunteers are serving breakfast, there’s lots of music and bells,” she says. “There were over 6,000 riders this year and there was a lot of congestion for the first several miles. There’s four rest stops, the second one where they serve lunch, which seemed odd until I remembered I’d been up since 5.

“And so many volunteers along the route were cheering us on. They were so enthusiastic!” she adds. “Last year, it was so hot that some people had garden hoses and if we gave a thumbs up they’d spray us.”

Each rider has a sign on the back of their bike, which has the rider’s name and says how many years they’ve done the PMC. 

“So some people would yell, ‘Good job, Rebecca!’” she says. “There were many cancer survivors along the route with signs saying things like ‘My son survived because of Dana-Farber.’ I cried at least four times as I rode.”

When asked why she chose this particular charity to volunteer for, Vernaglia says, “There was cancer among my grandparents — it was so impactful.”

The riders spend the night at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. 

“When we go there, there were more volunteers giving massages and providing food,” she says. “And my dancing school friend Katie Southard was there, too.”

The second day of the challenge has a rolling start.

“There’s not as much room on the roads in Bourne as in Wellesley, so I didn’t start until 5:45, and there was such a beautiful sunrise along the Cape Cod Canal with fog over the water,” she says.

A rising sophomore at the University of Vermont, Vernaglia says she doesn’t bike there very often, although she rode on the bike path through Lake Champlain. 

“I do my biking around here, mostly,” she says. “I bike to my summer job in Arlington and do 15 to 20 miles during the week, maybe 40 to 50 over the weekend. I got a new bike this summer — last year I rode my sister Marina’s old hybrid bike, but people told me that was really heavy. On my new bike, I ride about 5 mph that before. I averaged about 14 mph on the race.”

On day two, she was surprised.

“Everyone says the Cape is so flat, but it isn’t. I was riding pretty fast until the last 20 miles, which is the slowest part along the highway and you have to avoid all the cars. But then I could see sand dunes and the ocean,” she says. “It was so much fun throughout. There are two finish lines in Provincetown and my parents were at the wrong one, but my college friend Sophie Appel was there and we hung around the town all afternoon. 

“Next year I might do the New York City bike marathon, but I recommend that people do the PMC,” she adds. “It’s a great experience.”

Riders as young as 15 can enter, Vernaglia says, and, “I saw lots of seniors riding.  It’s so cool that some people have done it for 40 years!”