Alumni Spotlight

Paul Jenkins ’92

Jenkins (center with beard) with other riders, including event coordinator Frazier (third from right) and Kraus (far right).

Each summer for the past seven years, Paul Jenkins ’92 and Jim Frazier ’92 have saddled up with friends for a long weekend—a really long weekend—to raise money for the fight against children’s cancer.

Jenkins, a prosthetist and orthotist who lives in Strafford, NH, organized Ride for Hope, Ride for Life in 2002 with Frazier and high school friend David Kraus. The three-day, 250-plus-mile bicycle ride raises money for Boston Children’s Hospital, a leader in research and treatment of a childhood brain cancer known as medulloblastoma.

“A few of us had done other fundraiser rides before,” Jenkins says. “They’re great events, but they have overhead costs that might mean the charity ends up getting only 80 percent of the money. We thought we could do it better: if people are donating money to a cause, all the money should go to the cause. That’s what we do: 100 percent of all donations go to cancer research at Children’s Hospital.”

So far, Ride for Hope, Ride for Life has raised more than $40,000. “The ride seems to be growing by word of mouth, expanding out beyond friends and family,” Jenkins says. “People are welcome to join in and ride the whole trip or just a day.” There is no registration fee; riders raise whatever money they can, and it all goes to the hospital.

When the friends began Ride for Hope, Ride for Life, they hoped it would become an annual event. And while Jenkins admits that the long-distance haul is tough, he, Frazer, and Kraus will continue to ride each year and hope the event continues to grow. “We’ll do this as long as we can,” he says.

—Jennifer Philion