MJFF challenge sets new goal after Pacific rowers raise $28M
$41M in matched donations will honor four who rowed for 41 days
From Monterey Bay in California to Hanalei Bay in Kauai, Hawaii, Team HPP (Human Powered Potential) has rowed 2,800 miles across the Pacific Ocean and raised $28 million to benefit The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and its efforts to better treat and cure Parkinson’s disease.
Now a new target of $41 million has been set, honoring the four athletes’ — including one with Parkinson’s — 41 days of rowing in open ocean, a suggestion made by one team member’s son. It comes courtesy of an anonymous benefactor, who is extending a 3-to-1 match for donations, meaning that every $1 raised will turn into a $4 donation, or every $25 will bring in $100, a foundation press release states.
So far, the MJFF’s “Summer Challenge” campaign has raised about $29.1 million and donations remain open. Supporters can either donate directly or by registering as an individual or team to row, cycle, swim, or run or walk in their neighborhood or home. Registration costs $28 per person, and that fee will be matched up to each supporter’s fundraising goal.
A team member now is first person with Parkinson’s to row across the Pacific
Patrick Morrissey, diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019, was among the four endurance athletes who traversed the Pacific Ocean this summer with a goal of raising $10,000 per mile rowed. The team rowed 24 hours a day, at two-hour intervals of on-and-off time, until they reached Hanalei Bay on July 26.
“Just as the ocean brings unexpected challenges like sudden storms or rogue waves, Parkinson’s adds unpredictable stresses in different environments,” said Morrissey, the first person to row across the Pacific with the disease.
“As a team, we were able to manage despite the obstacles we faced on the water. I hope to inspire at least one person to be able to endure and then they inspire another person, and it continues,” he added. “This team, the Parkinson’s community, my family and friends inspired me to endure. We’re all one big team.”
Morrissey was joined by friends and fellow rowers Brendan Cusick, Peter Durso, and Scott Forman. Their motto was “Inspired to Endure,” and their team was one of nine worldwide taking part in an event known as The World’s Toughest Row.
The athletes earned their spot in rowing history, becoming the first four-man American team to complete a Pacific crossing. Their successful $10,000 per mile goal also marked the most funds raised by an individual team since the 2022 official launch of World’s Toughest Row, a challenge whose roots trace to 1896 and the rowboat crossing of the Atlantic, from New York to England, by two Norwegian immigrants to the U.S.
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