\u201cToday was the roughest start \u2026 the hills,\u201d said Kyle Coffman, a participant from Colorado. \u201cAs soon as we left New Haven it was up and down. So far, the entire ride out of Fenway has been great. We\u2019re rolling through towns. I jumped into Long Island Sound at one stop. We\u2019re taking it all in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just before 10:30 a.m., the large group of cyclists rolled into Monroe, Conn., where a rest stop was available at the Monroe Volunteer Emergency Medical Service\u2019s headquarters on Jockey Hollow Road. Bicycle racks were set up in the parking lot, along with two port-a-potties, a snack table, water jugs to refill bottles, and a mechanic\u2019s area for the bikes.<\/p>\n
Cadence Sports, an event company based in Buda, Texas, set up the rest stop for the event, one of four stops along Wednesday\u2019s route.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe LiveStrong organization and Cadence Sports reached out to us asking if we wanted to be a rest stop and we\u2019re honored to support this amazing event and other first responders and their families,\u201d said Monroe EMS Chief Craig Rosenberg.<\/p>\n
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According to research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, firefighters are nine percent more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and 14 percent more likely to die from it than the general public.<\/p>\n
The ride brings together first responders, cancer survivors, and community members to raise funds benefiting Friends of Firefighters<\/a>, the Boston Fire Cancer Foundation<\/a> and Livestrong, expanding access to cancer survivorship and mental health programs for first responders and their families.<\/p>\n At the rest stop, the Stevenson Volunteer Fire Co. parked one of its trucks in front of the building for the occasion, and Lisa Pane, administrator for the Monroe EMS, and her daughter-in-law Cynthia Pane put out cupcakes they had baked to complement the selection of snacks for riders.<\/p>\n The table with the water jugs also had packages of Raspberry Lemonade Propel, Gatorade electrolytes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have pickle juice for cramps and spoonfuls of honey if they need a burst of sugar,\u201d said Brian Kines, of Cadence Sports.<\/p>\n Kines staffed the rest stop with Hector Martinez and Merlyn Townley, who is one of three mechanics for the ride.<\/p>\n \u201cAll kinds of things happen on the road,\u201d Townley said, \u201ceither they get a flat or they crash into each other. I patched a tire with a dollar bill and Krazy Glue, because I didn\u2019t have a tire. That rider rode to the next rest stop, where he got a replacement tire.\u201d<\/p>\n Another common repair is when a bicycle falls over, bending the derailleur, a device that moves the chain between different sprockets to change gears. \u201cI\u2019ve bent back several a day,\u201d Townley said.<\/p>\n Of the three mechanics for the First Responder Ride for Resilience, one is from Queens, another from Philadelphia and Townley hails from Burlington, Vt. Each starts their day at a rest stop and, after cyclists leave their stop, the mechanics go to the next one to help out there.<\/p>\n Townley said they start as early as five to seven in the morning and work as late as 10 p.m. to midnight. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue until there\u2019s nothing left to work on,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work, but it\u2019s totally worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n Ireland\u2019s Bravest\n<\/p>\n Eamos Fennell grew up on the Emerald Isle, but now lives in San Diego. \u201cMy brother John is coming. He\u2019s a firefighter in Ireland,\u201d Fennell said.<\/p>\n A group of Irish firefighters held up their country\u2019s flag while posing for a group photo with Monroe First Selectman Terry Rooney.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Behalf of the town of Monroe, it\u2019s not every day that we get people from across the country, and other countries, coming through our town,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd on behalf of LiveStrong, Friends of Firefighters, thank you for all that you\u2019ve done in your communities and in your countries. I\u2019m a first selectman here in town, but I come from a firefighter family and a law enforcement family, so I highly respect what you do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd let\u2019s not forget why we\u2019re here,\u201d he continued. \u201cOne of the most tragic events that happened in our nation\u2019s history since Pearl Harbor and the fact that we don\u2019t forget, and we remember the sacrifices that those men and women made that day, and the sacrifices that their families still live with. I pay homage.\u201d<\/p>\n FDNY Engine 316 Stephanie Wowk, of Smithtown, Long Island, wore a white FDNY shirt while riding.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a firefighter in the Bronx and I love endurance sports,\u201d she said. \u201cMy father was on Engine 316. He was at Ground Zero in 2001 and he retired in 2006 with respiratory issues, so I\u2019m riding for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Wowk\u2019s cousin is also a firefighter in House 316.\n<\/p>\n \u201cJust meeting everybody has been exceptional,\u201d Wowk said of participating in the First Responder Ride for Resilience. \u201cPeople are from Ireland, California, Texas \u2014 literally all over.\u201d<\/p>\n Each day ends with an overnight stay at a hotel and a chance to bond with other riders. Coffman said, \u201cwe have dinner together, breakfast together.\u201d<\/p>\n Before he arrived at the rest stop, Coffman\u2019s wife, Emily, and mother, Rayann, who is from Austin, Texas, waited at the end of the Monroe EMS driveway to cheer on the cyclists, which also included Coffman\u2019s father, John.<\/p>\n A cancer survivor, John Coffman now serves as a LiveStrong board member and volunteer. Rayann said her husband is an avid cyclist, who has also participated in the LiveStrong Challenge, a cycling event in Austin.<\/p>\n Martin Packham, of Austin, Dr. Jake Kelly of Anchorage, Alaska, and Rocky Naccarato of Wallingford were among the first cyclists to arrive at Monroe\u2019s rest stop.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great event. It\u2019s an honor to do it,\u201d Naccarato said of participating.<\/p>\n Packham praised Cadence Sports for its role in the ride. \u201cThey\u2019ve been fantastic,\u201d he said, \u201cgreat route, great planning, great logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Kelly is a cardiologist who said he participated in the ride to, \u201cfocus on cancer prevention and treatment for first responders.<\/p>\n \u201cThe support from the first responders has been incredible,\u201d Dr. Kelly said of those he encountered along the ride. \u201cThey stop and wave. There\u2019s a lot of positive energy and even some escorts in smaller cities.\u201d<\/p>\n All respectful comments with the commenter\u2019s first and last name are welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One hundred eighty five bicycle riders left Fenway Park after an opening ceremony in Boston last Sunday, when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-342265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_8784-300x225.jpeg\")
Mechanic Merlyn Townley, left, tries to find a leak in a tire.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_8692-300x225.jpeg\")
Martinez wore a T-shirt that said, \u201c5 Days, 343 Miles.\u201d He said many of the participants in the bicycle ride were firefighters from Ireland, joining other cyclists, many of whom are also first responders, from all over the country, including New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Texas, Colorado and California to name a few states.<\/p>\n
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Stephanie Wowk, of Smithtown, Long Island, is a firefighter in the Bronx.\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_8668-300x225.jpeg\")
\u201cThis event has been amazing,\u201d Rayann said of the First Responder Ride for Resilience. \u201cI\u2019ve never been a part of anything like this. It\u2019s like we see the brotherhood that goes with firefighters.\u201d<\/p>\n