The Tour des Chutes has been a Central Oregon tradition every July since 2005.

The Tour des Chutes marked its 10th anniversary Saturday, with a record number of cyclists — and runners — fanning out across Central Oregon to help support local cancer patients and their families.

Ride organizer Leslie Cogswell said registration was capped at around 1,700 people for this year’s event, with around 200 participating in an all-new 5K walk or run. Cyclists could choose rides of between 7 and 100 miles, all starting and ending at High Lakes Middle School on Bend’s west side.

Cogswell said organizers had been interested in adding a nonbike component to the Tour des Chutes for a few years and created the 5K in tribute to Johanna Olson, a Bend resident who died of a brain tumor at age 34 a little over a year ago. Cogswell said Olson regarded Tour des Chutes founder and brain cancer patient Gary Bonacker as her “brain tumor mentor,” and as a runner who kept running even as her disease progressed, Olson was an obvious choice to honor with the run.

“It’s not so much in her memory; she’s much more an inspiration,” Cogswell said.

Saturday was the first-ever organized ride for Diane Quitiquit, a recent transplant to Bend. Her husband, Bud, was a bike racer 30 years ago and urged her to sign up for the Tour des Chutes with him.

“My husband convinced me I could ride a 25-mile ride within one month of owning a bike,” she said.

Quitiquit said the ride through the Tumalo area was beautiful, and she was impressed to see so many people riding in support of a good cause.

Proceeds from the Tour des Chutes are donated to survivorship programs at St. Charles Bend, which assist families of cancer patients with the nonmedical expenses associated with helping their family members seek treatment. Funds raised through the 5K are directed to Pediatric Foundation, a Bend-based nonprofit that focuses its efforts on families with a child fighting cancer.

Organizers projected this year’s event will raise roughly $150,000 between participant fees and corporate sponsorships.

Dr. Dale Svendsen, a pediatrician with Central Oregon Pediatric Associates and one of the directors of the Pediatric Foundation, said cancer in children is treated differently than in adults, and smaller communities like Central Oregon lack the population to support pediatric cancer facilities. Instead, families must travel to Portland or other larger cities to seek treatment, he said, usually a minimum of once a month for two to three years.

Debbie Pantenburg, director of operations for the nonprofit, launched the Pediatric Foundation with help from Bonacker as a result of her experiences with her son Jimmy’s battle with brain cancer. Although her family was insured, the cost of gas, food and hotels on regular trips to Portland added up, she said, and they discovered there were no resources locally to help.

“Your life is completely upended. You have one goal — your child’s survival — and everything else in your life is put on hold,” she said.

Pantenburg said the nonprofit expects to have the resources to begin offering direct assistance to families by October. At any one time, roughly 10 Central Oregon children are undergoing cancer treatment, she said, and the foundation hopes to be able to provide all of them with help.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com