by Joey Phoenix
On Saturday, January 18th at 9:00 pm, Cycle for Survival’s Team #BrookStrong – Boston is hosting a special event at Koto in Salem as a pre-game for the main fundraising events happening in early February: Ride the Lightning – A Cycle for Survival Benefit Show in Honor of Brook Diedrichs. It’s going to be a night of 70s/80s Classic Rock for Charity.
The cover is $10 and the event will feature three bands: Master Of Beers – A live tribute to Beer and Metallica, Maiden New England – The Iron Maiden Experience, and The Night Prowlers, who will be covering AC/DC.
There will also be a raffle sporting such things as a driver and hat signed by Rickie Fowler from PUMA golf and a gift basket with Red Antler Apothecary herbal goodies and a gift card ($75 value) from Hive and Forge in Salem, among many others. Click here to see the full list.
Cycle for Survival, Memorial Sloan Kettering’s (MSK) nationwide indoor team cycling event, exists to support MSK’s research into rare cancers. Founded in 2007, Cycle for Survival – in cooperation with Equinox Fitness – has raised $180 Million since its inception, with 100% of that support going directly towards cancer research at MSK.
This year, Team #BrookStrong – Boston, led by Lauren Recchia, is teaming up with Teams #Brookstrong – SF and NYC for a special push for MSK. Their goal is to raise $40,000 in advance of the early February Indoor Cycling Events in those three cities. Each of the team leaders, and many on the teams themselves, have close connections to someone who was a MSK patient, Brooke Michael Diedrichs.
Brook loved classic rock, rugby, and traveling. On September 25, 2018, Brook found out he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer with a rare mutation, BRAF, a disease that would take his life on June 1st of the following year.
The three teams are pushing for $40,000 in support this year because, in 2020, Brook would be turning 40.
Lauren Recchia, the captain of Team #BrookStrong – Boston, got involved in 2019 when she participated in her first Cycle for Survival event in NYC that same year. The event raised close to $25,000 on behalf of rare cancer research.
“It’s an amazing event,” Lauren said, “Imagine hundreds of people on stationary bikes with music and great instructors. Almost everyone in there is obviously directly connected to someone who is dealing with cancer or died of cancer. It’s very inspirational.”
This upcoming event at Koto – Ride the Lightning – is also being hosted in Brook’s honor, who was, to put it lightly, a Metallica enthusiast.
“The reason I booked the bands I did is because Metallica was [Brook’s] all-time favorite band,” Lauren Recchia said, “I think he saw them almost 30 times all over the world.”
Join Cycle for Survival’s Team #BrookStrong – Boston, alongside Cycle for Survival and Memorial Sloan Kettering to honor Brook and continue his fight, on January 18th for an evening of music, raffle, and fun at Koto in downtown Salem.
If you can’t make it out to the event, you can also support Team #BrookStrong – Boston in other ways by donating directly or by signing up to ride for the event.
Joey Phoenix is a performance artist and the Managing Editor of Creative North Shore. If you have an idea for a story, feature, or pictures of adorable deep-sea creatures, feel free to send them a message at joeyphoenix@creativecollectivema.com or follow them @jphoenixmedia on twitter.
Why Support Creative North Shore? Help us Prevent a Paywall!
Creative North Shore is a FREE program. We are dedicated to keeping you up to date on the latest arts and culture events, cultural news and creative happenings on the North Shore, and we need your help to not create a paywall for content. Thank you for reading, and if you’d like to support our efforts directly, considering joining the Collective Club (and win free stuff!), sign up for a recurring contribution in any amount, or If you would like to see your events and Information show up here please consider becoming an individual or corporate business member.
