PMC Unpaved Living Proof Toast

The Toast

The Pan‑Mass Challenge calls its riders and volunteers who are cancer survivors or current patients Living Proof. At PMC Unpaved, the PMC’s gravel ride through the Berkshires, the Saturday ends with a toast to them, once the riding is done and the whole camp gathers on the stone steps by the lake at Camp Mah‑Kee‑Nac in Lenox.

PMC founder Billy Starr opened it, thanking PwC for presenting the Living Proof program and reminding the crowd how far that community has come, from something people once kept quiet to more than a thousand riders who now sign up as Living Proof. Then he handed the microphone to the keynote, Jen Timmins of Dana‑Farber’s philanthropy team, on her first Unpaved, and five months to the day after the phone call that made her Living Proof herself. She talked about trading her employee badge for a patient badge, asked everyone to get their screenings, and closed with a toast: here’s to Living Proof.

The Shoot

Snowcap Productions covered it with three cameras and two drones. I ran two of the cameras, holding the people speaking and the faces listening, while the drones took the whole gathering from above. A toast only happens once, so the coverage has to be set before the first word: every angle rolling, the sound clean, and nobody moving through the shot at the wrong moment.

It came the day after the fireside chat with Dana‑Farber’s CEO, filmed on the same stage by the lake, which I also cut. Same crew, same camp, a very different kind of night.

Watch & Links

Watch on Vimeo → The Pan-Mass Challenge → The PMC Unpaved Fireside Chat →