Over 600 bikers from the Lehigh Valley and beyond enjoyed a ride to the St. Luke’s Fountain Hill campus for the eighth annual Tucker’s Toy Ride on a breezy, sunny November day.

Delivering well over 1,000 toys, which are collected throughout the year, the event is run through the Lehigh Valley Community Benefit and it remembers Tucker Stuart, who died in a motorcycle crash in 2011.

St. Luke’s patient care manager Pat Gubich said the donated toys are distributed to the 10 St. Luke’s campuses, where they are given to children who visit clinics, emergency rooms or spend time in the pediatric wards.

“I can’t tell you the number of smiles you put on patients’ faces,” Gubich said to event organizer Rick Nauman.

“This is so close to our hearts,” Nauman said.

Tucker’s Toy Ride begins at the Tri-Boro Sportsmen Club in Northampton and winds its way to Bethlehem, with public safety escorts in each community. Hospital employees and volunteers serve refreshments to the bikers and riders upon their arrival, as they line up to place donated toys into hospital cribs and buggies.