With Huge Success, Cycle for Survival Rides For Lisa

Few people mean more to Boston College athletics than Barry Gallup. In almost 40 years as a football player, coach and administrator, he's become an institution within the Eagles establishment, a man whose blood runs thick with Maroon and Gold. As the Senior Associate Athletics Director of Football and Alumni Relations, he remains a fixture with a presence as reassuring as his kind glances and firm handshakes.

So it makes perfect sense to make rallying around him as much a part of BC's fabric as the teams he supports.

On Wednesday, Boston College student-athletes, coaches and staff members participated in the Cycle for Survival in memory of Lisa Gallup '09. For the fifth straight year, Team FabuLisa cycled throughout their day to surpass a $10,000 goal for cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

"As a nurse in New York City at New York Presbyterian, Lisa got involved with Dave Linn, who was the founder for Cycle for Survival," Gallup said. "They had seven or eight cities and wanted to expand to Boston, so Lisa and her brother were part of a committee that helped move it up here. But seven or eight months after they planned to move it into Boston, she was diagnosed with cancer. Before she passed away, she made me promise to continue to see this event through."

"Back in 2013, Ainslee Lamb was head coach of the field hockey team," said current field hockey head coach Kelly Doton. "Ainslee was very close with the Gallup family, and she heard about Lisa Gallup's efforts with the Cycle for Survival up to and through her diagnosis. Ainslee organized everything for a ride at BC, and now we're in our fifth year."

Following its debut in February 2013, the event's become one of the most fun and best-attended occasions on the Boston College calendar. Representatives from each of the Eagles' 31 varsity teams mounted spin bicycles for half-hour intervals. Competing with one another - but also enjoying the fun provided in an atmosphere of strobe lights, colors, beach balls and pom poms - they helped to raise money in memory of Lisa's spirit.

"We don't make it mandatory, but it's such a beautiful thing that our entire team insists on doing it every year," lacrosse's Kate Weeks said. "Cancer has touched every family, and everyone always knows someone who went through their own fight. The Gallup family is so familiar, and our hearts always go out to them, so it's a good chance for us to do it every year. It really represents what Boston College is all about, with our Jesuit identity and our mottos of community service for one another."

"While I donated the past three years, I hadn't been able to participate," men's track's Devaun Bovell, also the president of the SAAC, said. "So being able to participate this year was great. The energy in the room was great. My team just had fun with it, and it's really a great cause that we were working towards. SAAC has a lot of the same goals as Coach Gallup and the other administrators, which is to get student-athletes involved in community service. BC is all about serving others, and our athletic department is the same way. It's great to see athletes and our administrators take steps to make service play a big role for all of us."

It's a feeling that roots its foundation in the Gallup family. "The first year in Boston, we raised over $75,000," Gallup said, "So they asked if we could do an event just at Boston College. I thought that would be just wonderful. I was very emotional about it, having just lost my daughter, but to have her alma mater have an event that student-athletes could support, was important. So we opened up in 2013 and it's grown ever since."

"Ainslee did everything," Doton, who was Lamb's assistant coach at the time, said. "She got the cycle room in the Plex for the event, and she reached out to Under Armour to have t-shirts donated for Team FabuLisa. BC Dining donated food and drinks for the athletes, and we got the student-athlete lounge for registration. In the beginning, our student-athletes wondered what it was and why we were doing it. Then they learned and understood why we do what we do.

"When I first met Coach Gallup, I didn't know much about him," she continued. "But I knew he was important to Ainslee, which made him important to me. I had immediate empathy for him given what had happened with his family. But the more I got to hang around, I really got to see how many people he's touched. He is a good person and a brilliant man. There is nobody better than Coach Gallup. I wish, now, that we could do more."

Doing more is what drives this event every year to be bigger and bigger. Given their affiliations, it's no surprise that two of the most supportive teams are the field hockey and football squads. "We're all so happy to do this for Coach Gallup," football's Charlie Callinan said. "He's been there for us through so many years, and me being a fourth-year guy, it's sad that this could be my last time doing it. He and his wife do such a great job supporting Cycle for Survival, and he's so happy to be there with us during the event. So we love to do it for him because he's given us so much as a program."

"It's such a huge event, especially for our field hockey team because our coach is so involved in organizing the event," field hockey's Carly Kauffman said. "There's so much energy, and it's an amazing event for the Gallup family to honor the memory of their daughter. It's an honor to be able to represent BC and honor Lisa Gallup in this way. It's part of the Jesuit spirit and the idea of community service and giving back."

It's that spirit that blends the personal and professional atmosphere into a single cohesive unit. As much as Barry Gallup has been a professional part of Boston College, it's a place that blends into the personal side of life. Having faced down immense personal tragedy, the Cycle is a chance for BC to give back not only to the Gallup family but also to an alumna who once wore a SuperFan shirt like so many others.

"It's why I'm here, and it's why I've never left," Gallup said. "It's the spirit, and it's the people here. There's a lot of great places, but this is a special place. People really care, Brad Bates has always been supportive, and the community - I always see one or two of these shirts every day. Lisa was a three-sport athlete in high school but didn't play at BC; to see all the sports turn out for her is just incredible. This is what teams are all about. Doing stuff outside of athletics is huge and the common cause, to have them say, 'This was a lot of fun' is what we're all about. Yes, we want to raise money, but we want them to understand why we do the cause, and we want them to have fun doing it."

Now five years in, the Cycle for Survival keeps Lisa Gallup's memory as vivid as ever. In the spirit of the Jesuit tradition, with a motto of "Men and women for others," Boston College will continue to ride for her. The only question is how to make it bigger.

"Coach Gallup wanted to make sure the Cycle for Survival would continue," Doton said. "And we look to continue this for years to come. We're excited for it every year, and now we're looking to expand it. We want associations of people to become involved, and we want to get all people who are involved or associated with Boston College to become part of this great event."

More information about the Cycle for Survival and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center can be found on the Cycle's home web page.

With Huge Success, Cycle for Survival Rides For Lisa

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