Pedal for Alzheimer’s, Ltd. is a 501c3 non-profit charitable platform committed to organizing cycling events to raise money, create awareness, and provide education towards the mission of finding a cure for Alzheimer’s. The Pedal for Alzheimer’s organization was co-founded in 2017 by Josh Crisp and Michelle Brooke-Marciniak. Crisp, a Knoxville entrepreneur, and Founder of Solinity, in the senior care living space, is the Founder of Pedal for Pat, a 1,098-mile cycling event created for to honor the legacy of the late University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt who died of Alzheimer’s in 2016. Crisp founded Pedal for Pat out of a desire to extend the legendary Summitt’s platform by raising awareness and donations for The Pat Summitt Foundation and The Pat Summitt Alzheimer’s Clinic at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
While planning for the event in the summer of 2017, Crisp received a phone call from SHEEX Co-Founder, Michelle Brooke-Marciniak who expressed an interest in finding out more about his plans for Pedal for Pat, the event created for her former coach, mentor and friend, Pat Summitt. Brooke-Marciniak had crossed many paths with Pat Summitt as she was Summitt’s MVP point guard on the 1996 National Champion team at Tennessee, a surrogate speaker for Summitt as accolades poured in when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, an Advisory Board Member of the Pat Summitt Foundation and finally a eulogist at Summitt’s funeral. After spending an hour on the phone with Crisp, Brooke-Marciniak compellingly proclaimed, “I’m All In” to not only participate in the entire 1,098-mile event as a core “Summitt Cyclist” but also offer her networking capabilities to bring in money to help fund Crisp’s vision. Crisp asked Brooke-Marciniak to join him as Co-Chair of the Pedal for Pat inaugural event and a strong business bond and friendship was born.
With the overwhelming success of the inaugural Pedal for Pat event, the co-chairs realized the Pedal for Pat event could be the engine behind a much bigger movement, Pedal for Alzheimer’s, to help generate even greater awareness in eradicating the fatal disease. Most diseases are personal and they all start with a face. For Brooke-Marciniak, that face was her beloved coach. For Crisp, that face was someone whom he admired but didn’t know personally yet wanted to help.
It’s personal for all who witness such a devastating disease directly or indirectly. Crisp and Brooke-Marciniak Co-Founded in Pedal for Alzheimer’s with the image of Pat Summitt in the backdrop. Pedal for Alzheimer’s greater vision is to create similar cycling events to Pedal for Pat in the hopes to bring other “faces” into the mix and bring those faces, albeit a famous person, a family member or a friend, to the forefront of Alzheimer’s just as Pat Summitt did. The more faces we can bring forward, the more awareness we will create, the more funds we will raise, the greater the chance of finding a cure.
Pat Summitt’s motto in life was “You win in life with people” which is exactly what it is going to take to fund and fuel the necessary money and awareness to win this fight against Alzheimer’s.
Pedal for Alzheimer’s is committed to seeking a cure… We’re All In!
