By Kathy LaTour

Tia Bruno was finally professionally established enough to buy her first motorcycle at age 30 in 2002. Unfortunately, her bike sat for almost a year before the California video producer was able to ride, sidelined by breast cancer treatment. So, when she heard about the Pony Express Relay, a national fundraiser created by the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation, Inc. to raise money for breast cancer research, Bruno knew she had to take part.

Bruno got through treatment, she says, by planning for the last five legs of the Western trail of the 2003 Pony Express Relay from Ventura, California, to Los Angeles in July 2003. Supporting her were fellow riders in her motorcycle club, which raised $1,500 for the ride to honor Bruno.

“I cried when we came around the corner between the ocean and the mountains with the sun shining on my motorcycle and all the things I love after planning all during treatment to do the ride,” Bruno says. “I used to hope for the day when I would forget I had cancer, but now I want to remember it every day because that’s what makes me appreciate life.”

Created in 1994 by two motorcycle enthusiasts, Gin Shear and Sue Slate, the 2003 Pony Express is the fourth relay, taking the fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to the $2-million mark.

A History Of Determination
The Pony Express Relay borrows on the history of the first Pony Express when a lone rider galloped across the West, bearing the mail, precious cargo in the early days of the country. At each stop the rider found a new mount and perhaps a new rider, ready to take the handoff and continue to the next stop until the mail had been safely delivered. They dealt with weather, varmints, and bad guys to be sure the mail got through.

Today’s Pony Express has traded the horses for motorcycles and the varmints and bad guys for the freeways of Los Angeles and the streets of New York City, but the pace (fast) and the weather (unpredictable) remain the same.

This time the precious cargo is a promise—a promise to end breast cancer with the funds each rider raises for breast cancer research via the Komen Foundation: $250 per leg, with most going way over. Indeed, this year’s top rider raised $39,000.

Slate, a retired seventh-grade reading teacher, and Shear, a quality assurance technician at Eastman Kodak Company, have been riding enthusiasts for more than 30 years. They founded the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation (www.ponyexpressrides.com) to increase skills and opportunities for women motorcyclists at a number of multi-day events beginning in 1984. Ironically, it was a vacation in 1991 to see the Vietnam Memorial that sparked their desire to add fundraising for breast cancer to the Foundation’s mission.

“We were so struck by the loss of life represented by the memorial,” says Slate. “I lost three members of my senior class and Gin lost eight. Then we heard the statistic that during the 10 years of the Vietnam War, when we lost 58,000 Americans, more than 330,000 American women died of breast cancer. We knew then that we wanted to raise money for breast cancer.”

The women began shopping for the right nonprofit to benefit. They found the Komen Foundation, still in its infancy but willing to work with the demands of the Relay founders.

“We did our research. We wanted our funds to go to research—not overhead. We also wanted them to go to new ideas, people who were taking a healthy risk in looking at something new. If you aren’t willing to take healthy risks in life, you don’t move forward. You plateau,” Slate says.

The partnership has stuck—as has the partnership forged with BMW on their first fundraising trek in 1993 when the Women Riding for Research Arctic Tour visited three oceans by motorcycle and raised $25,000 for the Komen Foundation.

“We sent letters to everyone, and BMW sent a check; they have been with us ever since,” says Slate.

In 1996, the women went national with the first Pony Express Relay, which traveled the perimeter of the United States. In 1998 the relay went clockwise, and in 2000 riders completed the spokes of a wheel, which joined a hub at St. Joseph, Missouri, home of the first Pony Express.

The 2003 relay comprised three trails: the Western trail (2,200 miles from Seattle to Los Angeles); a central trail (Wichita, Kansas to Houston, Texas); and the Eastern trail from Orlando, Florida, to New York City, where more than 112 bikes lined up outside the Hard Rock Café on Aug. 24 to hear from Komen Foundation chief operating officer Pat Tosi.

Endurance, Education & Enthusiasm
Far from a fun ride in the country, Slate says the Pony Express demands of its riders the same endurance as those going through breast cancer treatment to remind them of the mission and challenge before them, a fact not lost on media meeting the riders at relay stops.

“We say that getting up at the crack of dawn and riding until dusk is nothing compared to one day of a woman or man going through treatment for breast cancer,” says Slate.

The vast majority of Pony Express riders represent the fastest-growing segment of motorcycle owners—women, who, according to statistics from the Motorcycle Industry Council, are better educated and wealthier than their male counterparts. Women now account for one of every 12 motorcycle owners in the country. Relay riders take part for reasons as varied as their professions, which run the gamut of white- and blue-collar jobs, a distinction that does not stop the fast friendships and bonding that come from completing the grueling course.

While some riders are motorcycle enthusiasts looking for a challenge, others are drawn to the cause, motivated personally because they are survivors or have experienced the disease in their families or riding club. Riders come with wide ranging experience, from beginners (see sidebar) to the experienced.
The common denominator is motorcycles—BMW, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Triumph, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki. All are welcome.

Each rider registers to join the group at one of the many BMW dealerships that serve as leg stops on each of the three primary trails. Some ride only a leg or two and then turn around for home. Others ride for days, staying at designated hotels, and a few complete entire trails. Each rider wears a pink armband, a reminder and a prompt for conversation from the curious along the way.

Also at each stop is the Medallion Pass Ceremony, a reminder to riders of why they have endured lack of sleep, heat, cold, traffic, or all four.

Remembering the Cause
Created by a New York sculptor Cheryl Stewart, the medallion comprises four pieces: two horseshoes, a circle, and a center that depicts the one-breasted archer. Each of the distinct pieces represents a piece of the breast cancer story: survivors, the future, those who have died, and the promise for a cure.

At the ceremony, the four riders wearing the pieces on the last leg combine them to create the single medallion, which is then divided again and handed off to four new riders who will repeat the ceremony at the next stop. Then a certificate is issued to the host stop, which reads in part, “We won’t give up, be turned back, or roll off our throttles until breast cancer is history.”

Slate and Shear are supported by a cast of volunteer riders who “staff” each leg, researching stops, riding ahead, and acting as trail bosses to the fleet of bikes, which may range from 30 to 200 depending on the location. All funds raised go to the Komen Foundation, with Slate and Shear covering overhead through donations of cash, goods, and services from their corporate sponsors, most notably, BMW Motorrad USA and Walgreen Company.

Individual contributors have stepped up to the plate as well. Plus, the riders themselves help out with donations for Pony Express memorabilia. Bill Bracelin, a staffer on the Western leg, is a 12-year breast cancer survivor who has ridden all the Relays to date. Bracelin learned in 2002 that his cancer had recurred in his spine, but he made the 2,200-mile Western leg despite the pain, resting only a few days in “Dorothy,” the chase vehicle motorcycle transport that follows the group to each location.

“This year meant a lot to me because I am supposed to be dead,” says Bracelin, who takes Nolvadex® (tamoxifen) daily. An inspiration to all the riders, Bracelin sums up his commitment to the Pony Express.

“It explodes two myths for me. First, that men don’t get breast cancer, and second, that women don’t ride motorcycles.”