Kathy Hinds of East Walpole Lends A Special Touch to the American Lung Association’s Autumn Escape Bike Trek

The American Lung Association is preparing for their 29th annual Autumn Escape Bike Trek presented by Sunovion, which takes off from Plymouth on September 27. Three hundred cyclists are expected to make the 160-mile trek ending in Provincetown on Sunday, September 29. Volunteers are needed for several different positions throughout the weekend.

One volunteer trekkers are always happy to see is Kathy Hinds of East Walpole. Hinds is a Licensed Certified Massage Therapist (LCMT) and works at Touch Peace Massage in East Walpole. She’s given more than 1,000 sports massages over the course of her career and has been heading up the team of volunteer LCMT’s that are on-site at the Trek for the last 5 years. Massage Therapists are available to give trekkers 15-minute sports massages at end of the ride each day. Hinds notes that she and her team gave more than 200 massages over the course of Trek weekend last year. Trekkers make appointments for their massage on-site and are given a time at which to come back for their treatment.

“We are very busy when we’re working at the Trek but it’s absolutely worth it,” says Hinds. “Being part of this event is both personally and professionally rewarding. It’s an opportunity to help support the Lung Association’s fight for cleaner air and get to know a lot of great people, many of whom are repeat riders who come back year after year.”

Hinds says that as an LCMT, she enjoys being able to see how her work has helped make a difference from one day to the next.  With a multiple day event, she says that gets to see how the body responds to the day’s ride and also how it adjust and responds to the massages in between. “In my practice, it’s not often that I see a client the very next day after working on them” she says. “At the Trek, I will often work on someone two or three days in a row and I am really able to see how the massage has made a positive impact. That’s encouraging and rewarding.”

As the lead Massage Therapist, Hinds is responsible for recruiting the team of therapists that will work with her at the Trek.  Since she is the sole practitioner at her company, she recruits other LCMTs that she has worked with in the past, has taken classes with, for example.  Most of the therapists who volunteer do so for all three days. The sports massages they give are meant to refresh the cyclist and help take care of any issues they might be experiencing like stiffness or tightness. With cyclists, it’s typical to see a lot of stiffness in the upper legs, quads, hamstrings, neck and back, Hinds says. “We have a great team of phenomenal Massage Therapists who look forward to helping make the AEBT the best experience possible.”

Volunteering is a great way to experience the event and help support the Lung Association’s mission to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. Volunteer assignments are varied and can be for the entire three days, Friday to Sunday, or just a few hours. Those interested in volunteering should contact Judy Deane at jdeane@LungNE.org. Licensed Certified Massage Therapists who are interested in volunteering as a massage therapist at the event, should contact Kathy Hinds directly at (508) 740-0430.

During trek weekend, the American Lung Association provides participants and volunteers overnight accommodations in cabins at two summer camps, Camp Burgess in Sandwich on Friday and at Cape Cod Sea Camps in Brewster on Saturday. Breakfast and dinners are provided free of charge to all registered trekkers and volunteers.

In the past 20 years, AEBT participants have raised over $2 million dollars in the fight against lung disease. This year the American Lung Association set a goal of raising $300,000 in an effort to provide educational programs, fund lifesaving research and advocate for healthy air and healthy lungs.