In 2025, Ride for Roswell will celebrate its 30th anniversary, marking three decades of fighting cancer together as a community.
Ride for Roswell celebrates 30 years of impact
In 2025, Ride for Roswell will celebrate its 30th anniversary, marking three decades of fighting cancer together as a community. Ride has seen an incredible amount of growth since its inaugural event in 1996. What started as a passion project led by dedicated volunteer and donor, Mitch Flynn, exploded into one of the largest cycling fundraisers in the nation.
“Ride for Roswell has about 1,200 volunteers and 8,300 riders plus staff, so there are almost 10,000 people who are doing something for Roswell Park,” Mitch explains. “Consistent with Roswell Park’s designation by the National Cancer Institute as ‘exceptional,’ I would say the same thing about the people involved in Ride for Roswell: We have exceptional fundraisers, exceptional volunteers and exceptional teams.”
In 30 years, the Ride Community:
- Has grown from 986 riders in its first year to more than 8,300 riders in 2024
- Welcomed a dedicated community of more than 1,300 volunteers
- Launched the Extra Mile Club in 2003, honoring our dedicated top fundraisers
- Honored patients and survivors and celebrated the impact of ride fundraising at Friday night’s Celebration of Hope
- Started the tradition of lighting the torch in 2017 to signify the spirit of the Ride and the hope it brings to all those facing cancer
- Began an annual awards ceremony at Pathways Park in 2017 to recognize the dedication of fundraisers, donors and volunteers
All of that has led to the community raising a cumulative total of $80 million to fuel incredible scientific advancements, support lifesaving clinical trials and fund critical quality-of-life programs for cancer patients and families. Riders and donors to Roswell Park together have made an impact for dozens of efforts like:
- The brain cancer vaccine SurVaxM
- The expansion of CAR T-cell therapy research
- The construction of the Scott Bieler Clinical Science Center to expand access to care
- Omniseq, a test to identify therapies that may be most effective for a patient’s specific genomic makeup
As the Ride Community prepares for its 30th anniversary on June 27 and 28, we take a moment to reflect on and celebrate everything we’ve accomplished together. Whether you are a past participant, donor, volunteer or advocate, we thank you for making the last 30 years impactful, and we are energized to see how much closer we can get to ending cancer together in the future.
Ride for Roswell 30th Anniversary
June 27 and 28, 2025