Top 40 supplier Charles River Apparel (asi/44620) sent five executives to compete in this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC), an annual “bike-a-thon” fundraiser with 100% of every rider-raised dollar donated to life-saving cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The Charles River riding team consisted of Barry Lipsett, president and CEO; Tracy Lehnen, vice president of marketing; Ross Dohrmann, vice president of sales; Mark Watts, inside sales manager; and Kaitlyn Montagna, decorations operations supervisor. On August 3, they completed the 85-mile route from Wellesley to Bourne, MA, and have already raised over $20,000 thanks to the support of friends, family and the Charles River organization.

“The PMC does amazing work and is unlike any event I’ve been involved with,” said Lipsett, who has been a proud supporter and rider of the PMC for 15 years. He and Lehnen made it their mission this year to build the first Charles River riding team, all of whom had not previously ridden. Peter Morgan, production manager of the knit team, also volunteered for his 10^th year.

“I am proud of our team’s effort and am excited that everyone is already looking forward to doing it again. Our goal for next year is to double the size of our team and to continue to inspire others to ride and donate to the PMC,” Lipsett said.

Leading up to the event, the company also held an internal company fundraiser where Charles River employees paid to participate in various games with all the proceeds going directly to the PMC. The biggest hit was the “Dunk Tank Challenge,” in which employees got the chance to dunk their coworkers, including three of the team’s riders.

With reported 2018 North American promotional product revenue of $47 million, Charles River Apparel ranked 37th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest suppliers in the industry.