Man biking across the country three times for childhood cancer
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IDAHO FALLS — Three years after completing a marathon every day for 114 days, a Wisconsin man will be bicycling through Idaho Falls as he completes a 9,000-mile bike ride to raise awareness for childhood cancer.
In 2017, Peter Halper’s world spun upside down during the funeral of his 3-year-old grandniece Emery.
Emery passed from childhood cancer — more specifically, neuroblastoma.
“I went to the funeral, mostly to support my sister. I had never even met Emery’s mom, Jenna, at the time. But I went for my sister, Missy, who is Emery’s grandmother,” says Halper. “Emery’s parents and grandparents were standing in the front, and Emery was in the casket behind them. And something in me snapped that day. I didn’t understand how they were going to do what they were about to do, bury their precious daughter. I wanted to do something about that, or at least be a part of doing something about that, about childhood cancer.”
Never having the opportunity to meet Emery before her passing, Halper felt he had to do something to help those affected by childhood cancer, so he decided to run not just one marathon, but 114 of them, and call it Emery’s Thunder Run.
Organized in conjunction with Emery’s Memory Foundation, an organization created by Emery’s mother, Jenna, and Emery’s grandmother’s, Serena and Missy, the event was a huge success, raising over $165,000 for childhood cancer research – but Halper wasn’t done.
But Halper didn’t feel he had fulfilled his newly-found purpose: helping to raise awareness for the daily struggles of the families and sick children he had met through Emery’s Thunder Run.
“I thought at some point in the middle of the run that I would feel like, ‘We’re gonna be done with this.’ And it was just so, so apparent to me that in the end, we weren’t done,” said Halper. “At that point, I had met too many parents and spoke to too many moms and dads whose child had cancer. Most of them had neuroblastoma. I knew at the end of the run that we weren’t done.”
At that point, the idea for another awareness event began to sink in, furthering Halper’s ambitions to raise money for childhood cancer research.
On Friday, Halper will start the “Thunder Ride,” in Bandon, Oregon, where by September 2023, he will have biked across the country three times, one for every year of Emery’s life, eventually ending up in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
This weekend, Halper will ride from Oregon to Grand Teton National Park, riding through Idaho Falls along the way.
“Childhood cancer research is underfunded and support for families experiencing this devastating diagnosis is needed now,” said Jenna Smith, Emery’s Memory Foundation executive director and Emery’s mother. “We have an incredible, selfless man willing to do this amazing feat for the second time to help support our mission. We’re hopeful he will inspire people to give, support and share the message of hope. It’s the best way for us to honor Emery every day.”
As he prepares for his three-time cross-country journey, Halper often thinks of the families he has met throughout his time raising awareness for childhood cancer and expresses a genuine concern for people who think “it can’t happen to them.”
“It sadly can affect you. I’ve since met many moms and dads whose child has neuroblastoma like Emery had. Some of (the children), unfortunately, have passed away, even in the timeframe I’ve met them,” says Halper. “Almost every one of those parents has said to me personally that they never thought it would happen to them. That they were not a mom of a child with cancer until they woke up one day, and they were. It does happen, and it can happen.”
Halper’s son, Jacob Halper, will also be riding across the country for the first crossing, making the effort for awareness a father-and-son challenge.
“I know too many kids now who have passed away just in the last three years that we met during the run, so it’s much more to me,” says Halper. “In fact, it has nothing to do really with riding or running across the country. We do this to get people to ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’ so we can tell them.”
If you want to donate to Emery’s Memory Foundation, find more information here. To follow Halper’s biking journey, click here.
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