Tristan Swangstu, Contributing Photographer
This month, over 2,000 riders and 600 volunteers helped raise $30 million for Smilow Cancer Hospital and the Yale Cancer Center at Yale New Haven Hospital’s, or YNHH’s, Closer to Free bike ride.
The Closer to Free — or CTF — ride is hosted by Yale New Haven Hospital’s Office of Development and is the signature fundraiser for Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center. Sept. 7 marked Closer to Free’s 14th annual bike ride, the second in-person ride since the pandemic.
This year, CTF worked with a team of over 600 volunteers to make this event possible. The event was attended by over 2,000 riders, who participated either in person or virtually.
The campaign is still ongoing until the end of September, but as of now $30 million has been raised for this event. Of that $30 million, all goes to the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center.
“Funds are used to support many different research and clinical program initiatives,” Ride Director Jessica Scheps told the News. “Some of these include clinical trials, our survivorship program, community outreach to bring equity to cancer care, and the best technology available to diagnose and treat a multitude of cancers.”
Several different routes are offered to riders, spanning from 10 to 100 miles. These routes may be as close as the streets of New Haven, to as far as the hills of Durham, but they all have been described as beautiful by participants.During the ride, the streets of Connecticut were flooded with […]
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