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LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER

Tucker’s Toy Run delivers sidecar full of toys

The annual Tucker’s Toy Run delivered over 5,000 toys to the St. Luke’s Hospital pediatric unit Nov. 2, marking its 14th year of support for kids who are hospitalized throughout the hospital’s network.

An offshoot of the nonprofit Lehigh Valley Community Benefit, Tucker’s Toy Run has provided well over 60,000 toys since its inception according to event organizer Rick Naumann, who says about 650 motorcycles and about 1,000 riders contributed to another successful year.

Participants gather at the Tri-Boro Sportsman Club in Northampton and receive a public safety escort through several communities on their route to the St. Luke’s Hospital main campus in Fountain Hill. There, a bus filled with toy donations is unloaded into pediatric cribs and refreshments are served by hospital staff and volunteers.

As bikers arrive at the hospital, some with a large plushie as a sidekick, others with a canine friend in a sidecar, and still others dressed in a Grinch or Santa outfit or with a skeleton strapped in as a rider, the scope of the initiative becomes clear.

In addition to the toys, Naumann says LV Community Benefit has helped residents, organizations and others with over $410,000 in monetary assistance.

“You bring a lot of smiles to our kids,” pediatric patient care manager Pat Gubich said.

Tucker’s Toy Run is named in memory of motorcyclist Tucker Stuart, who died in a motorcycle crash in October 2011.

Mitchell and Findley, of Salisbury Township, hold signs welcoming participants in Tucker’s Toy Run.
PRESS PHOTOS BY DANA GRUBBParticipants in the toy run unload a bus filled with toys for pediatric patients.
Also celebrating her birthday, Whitehall resident Rashel meets “Side Car Dog Riley.”
Leatherneck Nation Belleau Wood Chapter members Wrong Way, Shooter, Mad Dog, CAM and Soul Man support the toy run each year.
Scooter makes his first toy run with Brandi Haley, of New Tripoli.