BIKE THE SHORE for Breakthroughs

Picture it: the country’s longest freshwater shoreline. A bike ride that means something—and momentum that just keeps going. Each year, cyclists of all ages and abilities flock to Lake Michigan for the Scenic Shore Bike Tour. It’s unique: a crossroads of community, cycling, and commitment to people with blood cancer.

Every rider pedals to help LLS fund the treatments and support that blood cancer patients and their loved ones need. And with route options between 25 and 175 miles, it’s a ride for all. No wonder so many keep coming back, whether solo or alongside family and friends.

For longtime rider and former LLS board member Paul Westrick, Scenic Shore is “the highlight of my summer.” His first ride was in 2008, while he was in remission from multiple myeloma. “I [started supporting LLS] not to help myself, but to pay it forward to future patients and families,” Paul shares. “Little did I know I too would benefit from LLS research funding, and ongoing support for patients.”

When Paul was first diagnosed, the median survival rate for multiple myeloma was three years. Twenty-seven years and many treatments later, he’s still here—and he rides the shore every summer he can. “It’s inspiring and humbling to be part of a sea of over a thousand riders,” he shares.

“You get to [connect] with other survivors and people participating to honor or memorialize loved ones. This has become a community.”

Paul Westrick

Paul was diagnosed with another blood cancer, myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), in 2023. He’s currently recovering from a second stem cell transplant—but the process hasn’t tamped down his passion for LLS’s lifesaving work one bit. His 2025 goal? “To regain my strength, start training when the winter passes, and rejoin the whole Scenic Shore community for this year’s event!”

Community is at the heart of Jessica Salmonowicz’s experience, too. In 2012, just six months into her remission from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a team of Jessica’s family and friends (dubbed “Team Burdens Gone”) rode their first Scenic Shore. “I was on cloud nine,” she recalls. “Not only was I in remission; I was also doing something that benefited people like me, so that more people could come out on the other side.”

Years later, she found out LLS-funded research drove the clinical trial that saved her life. And that “full-circle moment” has kept her coming back to Lake Michigan. For her, like for Paul, Scenic Shore is about the people: “I think of LLS friends who work tirelessly because they know how important this is. I think of the doctors, researchers, and nurses taking care of us and finding new treatments. I think of my family flanking me, riding into the winds of life, breathing it all in.”

And, she says, she thinks of Paul—whom she met at her very first Scenic Shore all those years ago. “Paul introduced me to a new word: thriver. We are thrivers, not just survivors,” Jessica says.

“We’re advocating for more research, more new treatments, more people to thrive like us. I’ve held onto that since the first day I met Paul.”

Jessica Salmonowicz

Paul and Jessica have been friends ever since. They’ve supported each other through stem cell transplants and even been treated on the same hospital floor. “That’s the amazing thing about this LLS family: we come together, lift each other up or lean on each other when we need, and we move forward toward a cure,” Jessica says. Scenic Shore is just that: a family. One that keeps growing. One that won’t stop until we reach a world without blood cancers. Join us to ride the shore for a cure!

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