Stewart Kohl: The Hobby that Helped Launch a Movement

Stewart Kohl has always had a passion for cycling. From the exhilaration of riding with no training wheels as a little boy in New Jersey to tooling around campus as an undergrad at Oberlin College, cycling has meant joy and freedom

Looking back, it seems preordained that Kohl’s deep commitment to philanthropy would end up melding with his love of cycling.

VeloSano began in 2014, but its roots go back to that childhood in Leonia, New Jersey.

“There’s a magic to being on a bike,” said Kohl. “It connects you with nature, relieves stress and it’s great exercise. When I started doing charity rides in 1990s, it was love at first pedal stroke.”

Kohl had done several charity rides before finding a cause that really connected in the Pan-Mass Challenge, which served as the model for VeloSano. The Pan-Mass Challenge raises funds for research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Kohl spent 16 years as a “heavy hitter” rider, seeing the power of the event firsthand.

“From my very first Pan-Mass in 1998, it was clear that it wasn’t just a bike ride,” said Kohl. “The camaraderie, the thank-yous from cancer patients, the inspiring survivors. Eventually I decided that I wanted an event like that in Cleveland.”

The opportunity presented itself when Kohl joined the Cleveland Clinic Board of Directors in 2013. The renowned healthcare organization had been seeking a signature fundraising event to benefit cancer research across the Cleveland Clinic enterprise, including its highly ranked Taussig Cancer Center. Kohl knew he could work with the Clinic’s world-class philanthropy team to build a Pan-Mass style event in Cleveland. The Kohl Fund served as the founding donor and VeloSano quickly found support throughout Northeast Ohio.

Latin for “swift cure,” VeloSano delivers 100% of every fundraising dollar raised to cancer researchers. Thanks to generous sponsors and financial backing, donations go directly to promising, cutting edge research. And that money has a compounding effect, as research that shows the most potential often receives further funding from federal grants.

“We have had wonderful sponsors like Jones Day, Adcom, Zack Bruell Events and Lexus along the way,” said Kohl. “Right away, we were also hugely fortunate to get the Cleveland Indians as an early and ardent supporter. Owner Paul Dolan is incredibly generous with the time and resources of the team, and they even provide access to the ballpark for part of the ride. Their participation early helped establish VeloSano as a credible and known commodity and they’ve been resolute in their support.”

The third weekend of July is when VeloSano takes center stage each year, as riders from across the country gather to ride distances that range from a family fun ride to a two-day overnight ride of nearly 200 miles. This makes VeloSano fun and accessible for people of all ages and abilities.

“The power of that weekend is palpable,” said Kohl. “We gather together with one shared goal but thousands of individual stories. When we make that first pedal stroke – whether we’re going five miles or the full distance, it’s impossible not to feel connected to something so much bigger. It’s especially inspiring to see our Living Hope riders – a testament to the power of advanced treatments and cures.”

VeloSano is staffed by a talented team that ensures fundraising is on target and that events happen without a hitch.

“It’s hugely important to have great people ensuring a great event,” said Kohl. “The reality is that unless people have a spectacular time, they won’t do the ride again. The VeloSano team ensures that it’s an amazing experience, from the great food to the enthusiastic volunteers, and all the way down to awesome massage therapists and ice cream. They think of everything because we need repeat riders to keep building on our success.”

The togetherness of the event is one reason VeloSano has become a year-long movement dedicated to curing cancer.

“It’s not just a cycling event anymore,” said Kohl. “We rightfully call it a movement, because we are funding year-round research and we have fun VeloSano events throughout the year like bike rodeos for kids, celebrations and other fundraising activities.”

That belief in VeloSano as more than a weekend bike ride is proving itself in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic has required it to be a virtual event for health and safety reasons. Participants are still encouraged to ride and raise funds, and VeloSano will take advantage of technology like Zoom and social media hashtags to keep momentum strong.

Kohl points out that VeloSano resonates powerfully whether it’s in-person or virtual because cancer has touched pretty much everyone in some way. Whether you’ve lost a friend, helped a family member through treatment or you’re a survivor yourself, cancer is not an abstraction.

“VeloSano provides an opportunity to fight back against a shared enemy,” said Kohl. “And rather than reacting, we get to proactively attack it, providing hope and truly moving the needle in terms of research.”

The net effect of VeloSano has been remarkable in its seven-year history. VeloSano has directly raised more than $21 million, with those funds distributing to research teams quickly and efficiently. VeloSano-funded projects have brought in a further $22 million of additional funding – that’s well over $40 million dedicated solely to ending all forms of cancer.

“We’re enormously proud of the work we’ve done, and it just makes us more committed to keep pedaling,” said Kohl. “VeloSano is planting seeds of hope with these research dollars, and many of these projects are already extending lives by finding treatments and cures.”

One great example is a project supporting new strategies to prevent cancer-associated thrombosis (blood clot formation), a common and deadly side-effect. The project that originally got funded by VeloSano starting in 2015 with $150,000 per year for three years went on to receive $4.7 million from the National Institutes of Health. That $450,000 from VeloSano led to more than $5 million in lifesaving research.

“Fighting cancer can feel like a Sisyphean challenge, but it’s not that at all” said Kohl. “The progress researchers have made with genomics and other radical new therapies is accelerating daily. Cancer in many cases has moved from a death sentence to a chronic and manageable condition. Every year – every VeloSano ride – we get that much closer to the cure.”

To learn more about VeloSano, visit VeloSano.org.