Senior Cyclists Ride For Cancer

Apache Junction - Gold Canyon News

By Michael Hartman

The News

The “Sammyrides” team, a Florida-based group of four senior bicyclists who are riding to raise funds for pediatric cancer, will be cycling from Apache Junction to Superior, leaving the Apache Junction Chamber of Commerce at 8:30 a.m. Friday, March 4. The team, sponsored by Team-Will, a 501(c)(3_charitable organization, encourages grandparents, great aunts and great uncles, and

seniors older than 60 to ride with them, donating $2 for every mile participated.

Michael Libenson, who lost his 9-year-old granddaughter Sammy two years ago to osteosarcoma,

a form of bone cancer, said that the team is “hoping that on March 4 there will be a number of seniors who are grandparents or great aunts and great uncles who will ride out with us.

“The cause came to me; I didn’t come to the cause,”  Libenson explained about pioneering Sammyrides. Libenson, who is 73, has only been cycling for a year in preparation for this ride. In

2009, he considered the possibility of bicycling across the Southern Tier of the United States in order to raise awareness of the devastation caused by pediatric cancer. “We are encouraging the

seniors to make a statement to the nation that we seniors are active, dynamic, and volunteering,

and that we are not ready for the dust bin,” Libenson said. The other riders on the team, John Bear, Mike Brown and Adolf Lex, all live in 55 and older communities in the Greater Sun City Center, Fla., area, along with Libenson. The team, whose average age is 70, expects to arrive in

Apache Junction on Thursday,March 3. The Soroptimists International of Apache Junction will host a meet and  greet with the riders at 4 p.m. at the Elks Lodge No. 2349 located on Highway 88.

The Soroptimist and Elks Lodge will be providing “pot luck” light hors d’oeuvres. Feel free to bring a dish or snack to share with the riders. “Let’s show the nation how great the residents of Apache

Junction are by supporting this great cause,” said Jeannine Daniel, treasurer of the AJ Elks Lodge and Soroptimist of Apache Junction. The team will stay overnight in town and ride to Superior

on Friday. From there, they will ride back to Florida on their journey. To participate in Friday’s

ride, pick up a form at the Chamber of Commerce, 567 W. Apache Trail. The phone number there is (480) 982-3141. For more information on Sammyrides, visit http://www.sammyrides.com/.