Bicyclists complete 115-mile event for MS

CONNEAUT – Annie Miller is a self-proclaimed fixer while also being fiercely protective of her family. Feeling helpless after her son-in-law, Anthony Sabo, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she decided to help in the only way she knew how – by raising money.
Miller, 65, has spent the last 14 years raising funds for MS research through the Bike MS Escape to the Lake event.
“We found out (Anthony) had MS a month before this ride,” Miller said. “I talk to our daughter all the time. They weren’t married then, and I fix everything. I’m Jewish, I’m a mother. I’m a therapist. She snapped at me and she said, ‘Mom, you can’t fix this!’ Right after I got off the phone with her, I saw an article in the paper and I said, ‘I can do that.’ Fourteen years later, here I am.”
The Bike MS Escape to the Lake is a 115-mile, two-day ride that began at Moraine State Park North Beach in Portersville, Pa., and wound its way to Thiel College in Greenville, Pa., on Saturday, June 13. The event finished on Sunday, June 14, at the lower pavilion in Conneaut Township Park.
“Every event is unique,” Kevin Moffitt, executive director for the Pennsylvania-South Delaware Chapter of the MS Society, said. “I will say, I’ve not put into an event where we’ve gone 75 miles and then another 60 miles just so we can actually escape to the lake.”
“(The cyclists) love the challenge,” Moffitt continued. “We have some rides that are flat. This is not one of them and they know what they’re getting into. They’re up for the challenge and they train for it.”
Escape to the Lake raises money for MS research.
“For people living with MS, this is the primary fundraiser,” Moffitt said. “It fuels research. The MS Society is the second largest founder of research in the world. Also, it provides support and programs for people living with MS in this community and right across the country. We have more than 50 rides. This ride today will raise more $500,000. We’ve got 400 cyclists out here. We do events like this across the country.”
Miller, who lives in Golden, Colo., raised nearly $10,000 for the 2026 event.
“This is for my Anthony,” Miller said. “We’re a very close family. It’s my kid. I don’t care if it’s an in-law. We’re a very close family.
“I normally average about $7,000 or $8,000,” Miller continued. “My brother, Bruce Silverblatt, just passed away, which made this really hard. A lot of his friends have supported me, sympathy donations.”
Miller, who flies in each year for Escape to the Lake, bikes the event with the full support of her family.
“My husband’s always there,” Miller said. “He is 1,000% supportive. My kids are all texting me. My grandkids have made signs in Colorado. This is a family effort. This isn’t me, this is all of us, and I ride with friends and they’re all my people.”
The cyclists who raise money for the event put in a lot of work.
“The MS Society is dependent on what we call peer-to-peer fundraising,” Moffitt said. “It’s the team captain who goes to his next-door neighbor and says, ‘Hey, I’m doing this ride this year. Would you make a donation?’ It’s really fueled by community, by family and friends and coworkers who all get behind that one rider to support them, and that’s what helps us raise so much money.”
Escape to the Lake is both heartbreaking as well as helpful in the fight against MS.
“The heartbreaking side of it is there are still people that none of the current treatments work for,” Moffitt said. “That’s becoming a smaller and smaller minority, and the earlier we get people diagnosed with MS and on a disease-modifying therapy, the better off their long-term outcomes are going to be. The heartbreaking part is when you see somebody who didn’t get diagnosed in time or it took years for them to get diagnosed, and by the time they got put on a treatment, the damage was already done by the disease.”
“Part of the value of events like this is they also raises awareness about the disease,” Moffitt said. “Hopefully, anybody who has early symptoms like if they lose vision in one eye for a day, they need to go to a neurologist. If you have recurrent tingling in your left leg, you need to go to a neurologist. You need to be diagnosed if you have MS because that’s the key to your long-term health and wellness.”
The City of Conneaut is grateful to have Escape to the Lake end in Conneaut Township Park each year.
“It’s a great kickoff to our tourist season. Number 1, to have so many people have an opportunity to enjoy our beautiful lakefront and encourage them to come back again,” Connie Naylor, executive director for the Conneaut Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, said. “And, of course, the MS cause in itself touches so many people here in Conneaut, close to our hearts. My uncle was an MS survivor, and I do this in his memory every year.”
Conneaut residents line the streets from the state line to the lower pavilion at Conneaut Township Park to welcome the riders.
“It’s a great time,” Naylor said. “It’s a big party down here. On Friday, we put signage in place welcoming all the riders from Furnace Road all the way to the entrance to the park. We passed out flyers and made sure the media had the news so that we were priming everybody to attend. The rest of it is just a big party.”