News
St. Luke’s Pediatrics will once again be the recipient of a generous toy donation from Tucker’s Toy Run. This year Tucker’s Toy Run is celebrating its 10-year anniversary, a ride which began to honor the memory and celebrate the life of Tucker Stuart. Friends and riding companions of Stuart’s, a riding enthusiast who died in a motorcycle accident in 2011, come together each year to donate toys to the pediatric patients of St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN). The inaugural event included less than 100 bikers. This year more than 600 riders are expected to participate.
The Tenth Annual Tucker’s Toy Run will take place Saturday, November 7. According to organizer Rick Nauman of Lehigh Valley Community Benefit, riders will gather at Tri-Boro Sportsmen Club in Northampton at 10 am. Kickstands will go up at noon as the bikers, escorted by fire and police, head over to St. Luke’s University Hospital – Bethlehem to drive by the hospital at approximately 12:30 pm.
“The feeling when the bikers come by is so tremendous,” says Pat Gubich, RN, CPN, Patient Care Manager, Pediatrics at St. Luke’s. Gubich, who has been part of this project from the beginning, explains “Hearing the roar of the bikes is so exciting … it never gets old!”
Historically the toys have been placed in cribs at the hospital, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the toys will be presented at Tri-Boro Sportsmen Club the morning of the event. St. Luke’s will then distribute the toys to pediatric patients throughout the Network, including the new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
“Being admitted to the hospital can be overwhelming for anyone, especially a child. These gifts make the children feel comfortable and their experience a little less scary,” says Gubich. St. Luke’s Pediatrics is incredibly grateful to be the recipient of this donation for 10 years and looks forward to partnering with this organization for many years to come.
If you are able to show your support, please consider safely waving to riders along their route. Route details:
- – Tri-Boro to Canal Street
- – Canal Street to Laubach Avenue
- – Right onto 329
- – Right on Airport Road
- – Left on Schoenersville Road
- – Right on 8th Avenue
- – 8th Avenue to 378
- – 378 to Brighton Street
- – Brighton Street past St. Luke’s University Hospital – Bethlehem to Bishop Thorpe
To learn more about Tucker’s Toy Run, Lehigh Valley Community Benefit and this year’s ticket sale for a chance to win a motorcycle or cash prize, visit lvcb.org.
To learn more about St. Luke’s Pediatrics growing services for children, visit sluhn.org/pediatrics.
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Media Contact
Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 16,000 employees providing services at 12 hospitals and 300+ outpatient sites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 38 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 347 residents and fellows. St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. U.S. News & World Report ranked St. Luke’s #1 in the Lehigh Valley and #6 in the state. Two of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals are St. Luke’s hospitals. St. Luke’s University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health eight times total and six years in a row. St. Luke’s has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.
