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Volume 25, Number
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Riding toward a cure Citizen Staff
A little over a year ago, Ali Sullivan of Berlin learned that her best friend, Dena, had been diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer at just 28 years old. Though Dena was handed a terminal prognosis, she has taken it head on. Local musician Chaela Franck is set to perform at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, Dec. 17. Photo provided by Chaela Franck
Local musician to perform at Carnegie Hall By Nicole Zappone The Citizen
A Berlin woman is taking the stage on Dec. 17, when she performs at Carnegie Hall. Chaela Franck won The American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition earlier this year for the harp. This competition, open to musicians worldwide, is held each year for school students and adults. All instruments, including piano, strings, voice, and winds, participate. Participants are required to submit video recording
materials for the audition, and multiple winners are chosen in each category. Chaela Franck has been studying the harp with instructor Gretchen Van Hoesen. Van Hoesen is a Principal Harpist at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, as well as a professor of Harp at Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University. Besides studying harp, Franck is Van Hoesen’s graduate assistant, working toward her Master of Music degree in harp performance at Carnegie Mellon University. See Musician, A5
“She is the most inspirational person I know,” posted Sullivan, on the Pan Mass Challenge website. “A year later, she told me she was going to participate in the Pan Mass Challenge and bike from Boston to the tip of Cape Cod. So, when she asked me to join her and bike 170 miles, how could I possibly say no?” Sullivan participated in the Pan-Mass Challenge the first weekend in August. Riders can bike as short as 25 miles to as long as 170 miles. Riders start their journey at either Wellesley or Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and finish in Bourne, Massachusetts. Sullivan and Dena have been friends for nearly 15 years, “and although it’s unclear how many more we have,” Sullivan writes, “I am forever grateful for Dana Farber and their cutting edge cancer treatment development.” “Dana Farber enables Dena to have a less aggressive treatment and live a somewhat normal life. They are
Allison Sullivan (left) with friend Dena at the recent PanMass Bike Challenge. Submitted photo
giving her, and selfishly me, years back that cancer is devastatingly taking away.” Sullivan also rode for her cousin, Megan, who two years ago was diagnosed with stage 2b-3a breast cancer at 31 years old. “This being my first encounter with breast cancer,” Sullivan writes, “I didn’t know what these stages meant and if I was going to have much or any time left with my cousin. Thankfully,
because of places like Dana Farber, Sloan Kettering, and the forward progress we have seen in breast cancer research, the doctors were able to stop the cancer in it’s tracks and completely remove it from her body. It was a long two years, but Megan is now cancer free.” “I would ride 1,000 miles for Dena, Megan, and Dana Farber any day,” she concluded. To donate, visit https://profile.pmc.org/AS0620.