Twenty-five years ago, Brandy Marchetti was chipping away at the supervised hours she needed to get her driver’s license. Her aunt — who was battling breast cancer — became a frequent companion.
“She’s like, ‘I just had treatment, you need to go and get your hours in for driving, let’s go for a ride,’” Marchetti said. “So she would take a cat nap in the front seat of the car, and her and I would drive around.”
Her aunt died from cancer in May of 2000. More than two decades later, Marchetti is organizing rides of her own — including one in Caribou this weekend — to raise money for patients and families suffering under the weight of the disease. But nowadays, the rides she organizes involve ATVs, not passenger vehicles.
Marchetti’s Ellsworth-based nonprofit, Ride for a Cure, is partnering with the Caribou Viking Riders ATV Club to host a series of benefit rides on Saturday, culminating with a “glow ride” parade through downtown Caribou.
The event opens at 11:30 a.m. for lunch and registration at the Caribou VFW. At 1 p.m. riders will head off for a more-than-60-mile ride on local trails before returning to the VFW by 5 p.m. for dinner and 50/50 prize raffles. A second, shorter ride through the Caribou Loop begins at 7 p.m. ending on Main Street for the start of the “glow ride” parade, a roughly two-mile route that continues onto High Street and Bennett Drive.
“[Marchetti’s] given us free reign to go ahead and do what we’re doing, which makes each [ride] unique because each club has their own spin on things. ” Caribou Viking Riders ATV Club President Jeff Barnard said. “I thought it would be a good idea to have something that would bring visibility outside of just doing the event, which is where the glow ride at night came out.”
Several local ATV clubs are set to join Caribou’s for the event, along with “seven to 10” ATVs from the Hancock area, Marchetti said. Interested riders can register online or in person on Saturday.
Ride for a Cure began in Hancock in 2020 as a non-traditional fundraiser to help bridge financial gaps caused by the pandemic.
“I started working with the American Cancer Society in 2014 … fast forward ahead to COVID six years later, and ACS and many cancer centers couldn’t hold traditional walks, runs, bike rides,” Marchetti said. “Well ATVs could ATV. You’re out in public, there’s nobody around you … so we said, ‘All right, let’s try this.’”
The organization has raised over $50,000 in the five years by partnering with local ATV clubs to hold benefit rides in Hancock County. This year is the first it has expanded to other parts of Maine.
Their donations are distributed to the Beth C. Wright Cancer Resource Center in Ellsworth, The Christine B. Foundation, which supports cancer patients and their families in in Piscataquis,
Penobscot, Hancock and Washington Counties, and Team Hailey Hugs, which provides grants to families of children with cancer throughout the state.
“I do have family members that have passed from cancer, so it is something that I hold pretty close,” Barnard said. “Just in general, [it’s about] being able to have fun while reflecting on the issues that are out there trying to bring awareness and hopefully some funding.”
Ride for a Cure held its first ride of the year on July 26 in partnership with the Cold Stream Cruzers ATV club in Enfield and has events planned in Hancock and Topsham in October.
