Matt Dexter: Rubber Meets the Road

When Matthew Dexter prepared for the Ulman Cancer Foundation’s 42-day 2014 summer cross-country run to raise money for and awareness of cancer, he was seeking to change at least one person’s life.

He did. His own.

The University of Maine junior brought in $7,300 of the more than $1 million raised for the Ulman Cancer Foundation.

And he had some incredible experiences. Dexter ran through 113-degree heat in Barstow, California, had snowball fights in the Rockies and legged out the 20-mile final stretch to Federal Hill in Baltimore, Maryland.

And the most memorable and touching part, he says, was meeting cancer patients at James Graham Brown Cancer Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Dexter’s mother, Christine died when he was 13. And she is the reason he became involved with the Ulman Cancer Foundation’s 4K for Cancer.

And now he’s striving to do more.

Since completing the 4,000-mile team relay run July 26, Dexter has formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — the Eastern Trek for Cancer. The 29-day, 400-mile relay run starts June 27 in Kittery, Maine, and wraps up July 25 in Surf City, New Jersey.

He arranged for the route to go through New Jersey so that Joe Melillo, his friend, fellow 4K for Cancer runner and Garden State resident, could take part.

At about the halfway mark of the 4K for Cancer — Independence Day in Boulder, Colorado — Dexter says he and Melillo started joking about putting together a benefit nonprofit run of their own.

“It stuck with me and, after the run ended, it was something I wanted to,” he says.

The mission of the Eastern Trek for Cancer is to promote a healthy lifestyle and directly support cancer patients, says Dexter, a psychology major and business minor.

Participants choose to run 200 miles in 14 days, 100 miles in seven days or 40 miles in three. And for people who don’t run, there are other ways to make a positive difference, says Dexter, including donating money, hosting runners overnight and driving a van that accompanies runners along the route.

Dexter says 75 percent of donations will go to direct patient support and 25 percent will be for ETC operational activities.

“It’s not a race,” he says. “ETC will unite ambitious runners and passionate volunteers along the 400 miles of hope to provide the best support we can.”

It just might change a life.

People can also follow Eastern Trek for Cancer on Facebook and Twitter.