HANOVER — For Audrey Horsch Prouty’s surviving relatives, the annual fundraiser in her name for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center is like a big family reunion.
It gives Prouty’s siblings, nephews, nieces, great-nephews, great-nieces and even some great-greats a chance to come together and remember Prouty, whose courage in the face of ovarian cancer inspired her nurses to take to their bikes for the first Prouty after her death at the age of 55 in 1982. It’s also a chance to remember other loved ones who have since died.
“I don’t want you to think that these events are like a funeral for us,” said Lisa Horsch Clark, Prouty’s niece who organizes The Prouty team “Audrey’s Family Tree.” It’s “more like a life celebration.”
This year, the 38th annual event, Prouty’s brothers William (Bill), now 93, and Dr. Robert (Bob) Horsch, now 90, plan to attend and one of Prouty’s great-nieces plans to bring her new baby, who is named Audrey.
This year, the two-day event will kick off on Friday at 6 a.m. with the Prouty Ultimate 200-mile bike ride. Other events on Saturday include golf, rowing and walking. This year’s fundraising goal is $3 million. Over the years, the event has raised more than $36 million for the cancer center.
“Every year, of course, they’re raising more and more funding for cancer,” Bob Horsch said when reached by phone at his home in Virginia. It’s “very rewarding to the family to see that and to see how that has grown (and) to see what it’s doing now.”
Though he’s done the 50-mile ride in years past, Horsch said a rotator cuff injury will hold him back from this year’s ride. Despite the injury, he is looking forward to spending the time with family. All four of his children will be coming, and Prouty’s siblings will all be represented either by themselves or their progeny, many of whom will lace up their walking shoes or hop on their bikes.
Baby Audrey, born in May to Bill Horsch’s granddaughter Amy Regan Gallant, will be there to greet Prouty Ultimate participants, Regan Gallant said. It was at a Prouty more than a decade ago that Regan Gallant’s husband, Bryan Gallant, met her extended family and found a love of cycling. Now the two are volunteers and help with the 200-mile event. Gallant acts as a support rider, while Regan Gallant greets participants at check-in on Thursday evening and cheers at key points along the way.
At the end of the race, Regan Gallant said she has made a habit of pushing her grandfather Bill Horsch’s wheelchair around in order to introduce him to the cyclists. His presence gives participants a chance to thank him for his sister’s legacy.
“I cry,” Regan Gallant said. It’s “such a special place for me to celebrate.”
Prouty was the oldest daughter in a family of seven children who grew up in South Weymouth, Mass. She graduated from Middlebury College in 1948 and was employed for 10 years in the secretarial department of what was then the Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., becoming the first woman to lead the unit, according to her obituary.
Prouty met her husband, John Prouty, who has since died, at Hancock, Horsch Clark said. The two eventually moved to Warren, N.H. where Prouty served as trustee for the town of Warren and was treasurer of what was then Mount Mooselaukee Health Center. She also was active in the Plymouth Congregational Church and the Pemigewasset Choral Society.
“She was just a wonderful human being,” said Shel Lightman, Prouty’s niece.
Lightman’s father was in the military, so the family moved around a lot, but the Proutys were a constant presence in her life. She recalls baking cookies with Prouty to take to a retirement home near the Proutys’ home in Warren. A picky eater as a child, Lightman said it was at the Proutys’ urging that she sampled vegetables fresh from their garden: Brussels sprouts, asparagus and rhubarb.
It was an “awesome place to learn about everything,” said Lightman, who was 12 when Prouty died.
One of the things that made Prouty — whom Lightman said was her best friend — special was her faith. At the end of her life she was at peace, Lightman said.
That “made it so much easier for my uncle and all of us,” she said.
Horsch Clark said the tally of family members planning to attend this year is up to 52. She made a reservation for the annual family meal at Three Tomatoes Trattoria in Lebanon for 50, so she said she hopes there will be enough room for everyone.
The event has come hold a special place in Clark’s heart at least in part because her late parents Arthur Horsch and Laurie DeBrot met in Hanover. The walking part of the event, which Clark participates in each year, gave her the chance to visit parts of Hanover that held significance to her parents in the early days of their relationship.
Over the years, she’s pushed her now 9-year-old daughter Grace in a stroller on the walk and cycled alongside her on the bike.
It’s “been a really important part of my life, personally,” Clark said.
More information about The Prouty can be found online at theprouty.org.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
