Dolphins annual bike ride event, the NFL’s largest charity event, returns for 13th year
The NFL’s largest charity event is back.
The Miami Dolphins on Saturday will hold their 13th Challenge Cancer event at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, the organization’s annual charity bike ride to raise money for cancer.
The event features five distances: a 15-, 35-, 50- and 100-mile bike ride, as well as a 5k run/walk. The 100-mile, 55-mile and 5K events began and end at Hard Rock Stadium, while the 35-mile ride starts at the University of Miami’s Watsco Center and ends at Hard Rock Stadium.
Last year, over 4,000 people took part in the event and helped raise a record-breaking $8.4 million for the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only cancer center in South Florida designated by the National Cancer Institute. Since its inception in 2010, the event has raised over $53 million.
In 2020, the Dolphins gave a $75 million commitment to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. The gift was the largest known charitable commitment ever made by a sports team.
Several members of the organization, from outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips to team owner Stephen Ross, have taken part in the bike ride, and more are expected to do so this weekend.
“Every single penny goes back locally here to a hospital that is doing world-changing research,” said Elizabeth Jenkins, who is the board chair of the event this year. “Because of the DCC and the money that has been raised for the last 12 years, they’ve been able to recruit some amazing doctors and researchers to come down to the hospital because they know that they stand behind what they are doing. And that is going to make a difference in somebody’s life today, three years down the line, five years down the line, 10 years down the line.”
Elizabeth is the widow of Jason Jenkins, the Dolphins’ senior vice president of communication and community affairs who died in August 2022 of natural causes, a bilateral pulmonary thromboemboli due to phlebothrombosis, otherwise known as the formation of a blood clot. Jason, a devoted member of the South Florida community, had served as board chair of the event since 2020.
Elizabeth said she initially planned to only take on the 100-mile ride that Jason has done in past years but team president Tom Garfinkel approached her with the opportunity to take on the role of board chair.
“This is what he would want me to do,” she said. “He loved doing the DCC. He loved obviously being in the community but the DCC held a special place in his heart.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
