Bike ride to continue mission of providing mammograms

The annual Bike Ride for Amy will continue its mission of providing mammograms for women who cannot afford them.

The Amy Feiman Behar Foundation is sponsoring its eighth annual Bike Ride for Amy on May 31. The bike ride — featuring 15-mile, 25-mile, 35-mile and 50-mile routes through Middlesex and Somerset counties — supports the cost of annual mammograms for women who do not have the financial means to be screened for breast cancer.

It also provides help with the cost of diagnostic ultrasounds for those women whose screenings may suggest cancer.

Since its inception in 2007, the Amy Foundation has helped more than 2,500 women to receive free mammograms and diagnostic ultrasounds at Central Jersey hospitals.

“It’s so gratifying to know that, as a result of our efforts, some women whose cancers were detected in the early stages are leading healthy, productive lives,” said Arie Behar, president of the Amy Foundation, which he created and named for his late wife, who died of breast cancer in March 2007 at the age of 49.

“We have ambitious goals for expanding the number of women we can help. That’s why the Bike Ride for Amy is such an important fundraising event.”

The mammograms and diagnostic ultrasounds are made possible through foundation partnerships and programs with Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. The Amy Foundation has donated more than $300,000 to the three medical facilities.

Funds are raised primarily through the bike ride in the spring and the Walk for Diane in the fall, in addition to donations by private individuals and corporate sponsors.

The Bike Ride for Amy will begin at 8 a.m., with check-in at 7 a.m., at South Brunswick High School, 750 Ridge Road, Monmouth Junction.

Beverages and snacks will be provided at the start of the ride and at rest stops along each of the bicycle routes. Lunch will be provided afterward at the high school.

Halter’s Cycles, 1325 Route 206 North, Suite 29, Skillman, will offer a 10 percent discount on bicycle tune-ups to all Bike Ride for Amy registrants.

Registration fees are $50 for the 50- and 35-mile rides, which includes a riding jersey; and $25 for the 25- and 15-mile rides, which includes a T-shirt. All riders will receive a Bike Ride for Amy bag with reusable water bottle.

All riders are asked to raise a minimum of $140, which is equivalent to the cost of a single mammogram. After reaching that minimum goal, registrants will be emailed an entry ticket that they should bring on the day of the event to speed along the registration process.

Register or donate online at www.theamyfoundation.org.

In the event that inclement weather forces a postponement of the ride, visit www.theamyfoundation.org for a new date.