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.