Dear Friends, Family, and Colleagues,

A few weeks ago, I crossed the most incredible finish line of any bike ride in the world! The feeling of exhilaration as I rode into Chai Lifeline’s Camp Simcha is something I can still feel and know that I will continue to feel for weeks. You see, the 175-mile ride into Camp Simcha is not about the months of training, the fundraising efforts, or the swag. This 175-mile ride is about bringing smiles to the faces of kids who have many reasons not to smile. The kids at Camp Simcha have one terrible thing in common: they all have cancer or other serious illnesses that rob them of their childhood, and those amazing smiles we take for granted on our own kids. It’s the smiles I saw as I rode into Camp Simcha that are going to keep that feeling alive for me for weeks to come!

However, I didn’t cross this incredible finish line alone. As my valued sponsors, YOU crossed that line with me! As a partner with me, you helped bring smiles to the faces of kids with cancer.  You gave them a reason for hope, a reason to fight, no matter the pain and isolation that comes along with their diseases. Thank you for being my partner.

Chai Lifeline is so much more than Camp Simcha! My wife and I are chairs of Chai Lifeline’s Young Leaders division and through our involvement we have come to see just how much Chai Lifeline does every single day in Los Angeles, on the West Coast, across the country, and in other parts of the world. In their own quiet yet professional way, without fanfare, they do tremendous things – getting a kid in to see a doctor in New York within 2 days when it normally takes 4 or 5 months; battling an insurance company to cover a little girl’s chemotherapy; bringing meals to siblings at home while parents are at their son’s bedside in the hospital, just so they have one less thing to stress about; and much, much more! 

Thank you so much for helping me get to the finish line, thereby supporting this incredible organization. If by chance you would like a deeper understanding of what the organization does to impact sick children going through the fight of their young lives, as well as their families going along for this horrible journey, please feel free to contact myself or Ryan Hyman.  I have copied Ryan on this email, and if you would like to spend a few minutes of your time to meet in person and learn firsthand why Chai Lifeline is not only a critically important organization, but why it means so much to me too, by all means, please reach out to one of us.

Regards,

Matthew Kest