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(Left to right) Myke Farricker, Sam Trumbo and Paul Tamburello at the 2006 Positive Spin for ALS. |
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Putting on a Positive Spin
By Kevin Mullaney
Banner Correspondent
PROVINCETOWN — Sam Trumbo, the now 19-year-old son of the late Doug Trumbo, keeps the memory of his father alive with an annual bike ride that raises money for ALS, the mysterious affliction more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Last year Sam raised over $4,000 from friends and family and from the Provincetown Rescue Squad. So far this year he has raised $1,600 and hopes to boost that total with a little help from his friends.
Doug and Susan Trumbo moved to Provincetown in 1973, and by the early ’90s Doug was well known around town, very much the face of the Provincetown Rescue Squad. A carpenter and paramedic, Doug served for nearly 20 years on the rescue squad and the fire department, serving as district chief and on the board of fire engineers. In 1996 he died, taken at the young age of 45 by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
“I remember him being a good, funny guy,” says Sam, now a biochemical engineering student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Sam was nine when his dad died. “We took road trips to Virginia,” he says, thinking back fondly to his childhood. “He had a great sense of humor, liked fishing and recreational gun collecting. Took me to the firing range in Eastham.”
After Doug’s death, Sam, his sister Hannah and their mom, Susan, were inspired by Paul Tamburello, who had started the Positive Spin for ALS a couple years before. Tamburello was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, a non-fatal but debilitating neuromuscular disease with symptoms similar to ALS. The Trumbo family became involved in raising funds. The entire family has participated in the rides, with Paul as the torch carrier, riding for the ninth time.
“It was a way for us to stay in touch with the ALS community, to remember their father,” Susan says of the family’s work for ALS. “It’s really great to keep them connected. We’ve met people with ALS,” which she calls a devastating disease that is also hard on care givers.
“ALS can progress to complete paralysis,” she says, “but Doug never went that far.” His muscles atrophied, she says, and he needed assistance to take in more air, until he stopped breathing. Doug used a cane but still drove, and worked until six weeks before he died. “It could’ve gone on for years,” Susan says.
Half of the money raised by the ride goes to research, the other half to respite and home care assistance.
The charity ride has changed, however. In 2002 Tamburello merged with another, bigger ALS ride started by Mike Farricker of Wayland. Farricker’s brother Pete died of ALS. This ride starts and ends at the Longfellow Club in Wayland. Sam wasn’t able to make the ride this year because of a commitment with the Outer Cape Chorale, so the two founders joined with Sam for a “post-spin” ride two weeks ago. The three started at the Seashore’s Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham and rode 26 miles to Provincetown Inn.
“I’ve watched Sam and Hannah grow up and really admire their spirit, natural grace and grounded personalities,” Tamburello says of the Trumbo kids, saying he feels like a long distance uncle. “By riding in Doug’s honor Sam’s got one eye looking back as he thinks of Doug and one looking forward,” he says of Sam’s studies at Johns Hopkins.
“We wanted to show we’re still creating awareness,” Sam says of this year’s ride.
“It was fun, a nice ride,” he says.
After the ride the Trumbo family hung out on the breakwater to reminisce about Doug.
“I’m proud of him,” Hannah says of her brother. “We’re really supportive of each other,” adding that she admires his commitment to ride every year.
“I want to help people,” says Sam, a Nauset graduate, of his studies at Johns Hopkins. He has worked as a busboy at Napi’s the last four summers but wants to be a physician one day. “Definitely in the medical field,” he says.
If you would like to contribute in the memory of Doug Trumbo, send your tax-deductible donation (made out to Positive Spin for ALS) to Team Trumbo, 2 Fortuna Road, Provincetown, MA 02657.
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Jul 26th, 2007