Ride For Life at SBU Raises Funds, Awareness for ALS

On Saturday, the University held the 14th annual Ride for Life Day of Celebration & Remembrance, bringing together the thousands of people stricken with or affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, while also raising awareness for the disease.

At the Remembrance and Commemoration Ceremony, the names of 90 ALS victims who lost their fight with the disease were read and 6,000 pinwheels were planted in the ground, representing the number of lives lost to ALS each year.

Attendees included Dr. Christopher Pendergast, an 18-year survivor of ALS. Pendergast founded Ride for Life, a not-for-profit organization, in 1998. In December, the University renamed its ALS clinic the “Christopher Pendergast ALS Center of Excellence.”

“I feel exhilarated, and I am happy to see the great turnout and support for the Ride for Life ceremony at Stony Brook,” said Pendergast upon entering the Stony Brook campus. “We must not forget those we have lost or the hope that a cure for ALS can become a reality.”

The 11.9-mile ride began west on Route 347 from Empire Bank in Port Jefferson Station. Riders turned north onto Nicolls Road and eventually made their way to wound its way to the Long Island State Veterans Home for a veterans salute and lunch. They then rode around campus counterclockwise and ended in the South P lot for the main event.

Ride for Life presented a check for $68,000 to the ALS center; since its inception, more than $3 million has been raised for ALS research. The Ride began Sunday, May 9, in Riverhead, and will make its way to Manhattan on Saturday, May 21.