Throughout the year, my wife and I support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston. With your help, we raised nearly $12,000 for DFCI via my Pan-Mass Challenge ride this year. My wife also helped to raise over $5,000 as she ran the Boston Marathon on DFCI’s Marathon Challenge Team in April. Team Silver  will continue these fundraising events next year.

I joined the Dana-Farber Leadership Council this year, and my wife and I  participate in various DFCI events throughout the year. Our objective is to help  Dana-Farber doctors and staff find a cure for cancer and help people who are battling cancer. Dana-Farber is one of the leading cancer organizations in the world.

One thing I learned earlier this year is that Dana-Farber has a way for  supporters to  directly help patients and their families who have a financial need. While donating funds to Dana-Farber helps the organization with its  mission, many cancer patients and their families are also in need. Fighting cancer can cause a person to miss work, and loved ones may need to put their careers on hold  to take care of sick family members or their children.

The  Dana-Farber Holiday Patient Assistance Program  is an awesome way people like us can help people fighting cancer and their families during this holiday season. Last week, I made a donation to the Patient Assistance Program in honor of my business friends, colleagues and associates, including people who read my blog and advertisers. This donation was made in your

I know that many of you aren’t in the US, but I want to wish those who are a happy Thanksgiving. I hope those of you in the US are celebrating this holiday with family or friends (or both).

This year, I have more to be thankful for than other years. Some events that have transpired so far this year have given me pause and made me realize just how fortunate we have things. Even when things aren’t as good as they could be or deals aren’t going through, it is important to keep things in perspective. I am trying to do that more these days.

Business might not set a  record  for me this year, but I have a healthy and happy family, and that is the most important thing to me.

I am very thankful to have caring friends and supportive family. I am also thankful to have good business friends and colleagues. I am especially thankful for the people who read my blog and for the companies that support it with their advertising.

With the holidays and end of the year fast approaching, I wish you all well. Stay in good health and enjoy the time you can spend with your friends and family.

If you follow my Twitter account, you probably noticed I am a Red Sox fan. I would bet almost half of my photos are from various Red Sox games.

When I lived in New York City, I wore my Red Sox hat all the time. I survived because I was smart enough to not make any smartass comments to the wrong people and I wasn’t really much of a trash talker! 2003 was a killer, but 2004 and 2007 were great times to be in the City.

Now that we live in the Boston suburbs, my wife and I have a weekend season ticket package. We have great seats in the front row of the right field roof boxes, and it almost always makes me happy sitting in Fenway Park to watch the Sox. With the kids, we don’t get to Fenway Park to watch the Sox play as often as I would like. I think I went to something like 8 games this season, including opening day and the last game of the season yesterday.

If you are going to be at Fenway Park for any playoff games,

Thanks to the support of my generous domain name industry friends and colleagues, I went into this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) ride having already hit my fundraising goal. As I have mentioned over the last several months, my wife and I support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and its mission, and seeing friends and colleagues donate to help their efforts is very meaningful to me. Your support now would still be appreciated!!

For those of you who have never participated in the Pan-Mass Challenge before, I want to share a recap of the ride and experience with you. For those who are thinking about doing the  PMC in the future, I shared  a few tips at the end of the article. There are several PMC routes from which to choose, and I did the Wellesley to Provincetown (163 mile) route. For the previous two years, I did the Wellesley to Wellesley 50 mile route.

For me and a couple thousand other cyclists, PMC weekend started off at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts early on Saturday morning. There was a huge tent for registration and breakfast filled with  thousands of riders and hundreds of volunteers. For the entire weekend, there are just over 6,000 riders, many of whom started in Sturbridge for the 192-mile ride. I know how much the ride means to Dana-Farber and its patients, but the first time it really hit me during the weekend was when I saw a young rider who had a message on the back of her shirt that said something like “brain tumor survivor.” The impact of Dana-Farber is far-reaching and strong.

After stretching, a couple of short speeches, and the national anthem, we were off for the first day, which was an 84 mile ride for my route.

The first neat aspect of the ride was seeing Boston Red Sox executive and Jimmy Fund Chairman Larry Lucchino cheering on the cyclists, including his wife, Stacey, who rides on the Red Sox-sponsored Team 9 (named in honor of Ted Williams). Sidenote: As a Red Sox fan and season ticket holder, I would love to ride on Team 9, but I think you have to be affiliated with the Sox to be on their team.

On the first day, we spent most of our time riding through some of the smaller towns on the way to our first stop at Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA). Despite our early departure, there were a ton of people on the road cheering for us. People had handmade or printed signs showing their support for riders in general as well as for teams of riders. There were also PMC balloons on mailboxes throughout the route. I wish I could have taken photos because it was really cool to see their signs.

Throughout the ride, people were saying “thank you” to the riders. It felt strange hearing that because it was those people who helped give me encouragement to keep on pedaling. At various parts of the ride, people were handing out water bottles, lollipops, ice pops, Twizzlers, and other snacks for riders. I can’t stress how much this support meant along the way. We also saw people holding signs that said things like “I am 11 thanks to you” and “Cancer survivor for 20 years.” It was a great feeling to see how much Dana-Farber helps and to know that we are helping Dana-Farber.

One of the most meaningful aspects of the ride came

I’ve had quite a bit of support as I raise funds for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and its Jimmy Fund. We have raised over $7,500 for this great organization, and I sincerely appreciate all of your support – both financial and social.

I created a special TeamSilver.Rocks cycling jersey for my Pan-Mass Challenge ride, and I want to share it with you. My fundraising goal for this year is $10,000, so I still have about 25% more to raise to achieve this goal. Any additional support would be appreciated!

This weekend, I have two long rides scheduled – 90 miles on Saturday morning followed by 55 miles on Sunday morning. After this weekend ride, I will be tapering down my riding until the weekend of the PMC (first weekend in August). I am doing the two-day ride from Wellesley, Massachusetts to Provincetown, Massachusetts. The total distance for the two days is 163 miles.