John's Tavern Memorial Bike Run Again Tops $11,000 for St. Judes

By Liz Page

STAMFORD – There was a gentle rumbling of the engines July 19 as participants in the annual John's Tavern Memorial Bike Run put up their kick stands and prepared to ride out of town to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital..

The annual benefit is sponsored by John's Tavern in Stamford was started to help a friend, Vicki Allegretto, in her battle against cancer. It has continued in order to raise money for St. Judes.

The annual poker run has progressively raised more each year and is the culmination of a lot of people volunteering their time and effort to the cause, according to Santos Punturiero, owner of Johns Tavern.

Once again, he came with a long list of folks he wished to thank and who helped make it so successful once again. Although the deadline to donate was not until July 31, Punturiero said they had raised $11,415 as of Monday.

He thanked Jake More and George Keyser for organizing and mapping out the 160-mile run. They also donated $1,000 to create a beautiful Corn Hole board.

Bartender Mary Jane Perotti is on his list more than once as she sold paper pumpkins, Santas, snowmen, hearts and stars to bar patrons and she helped get many nice donations for the live auction, called by Luis Ortiz, aka Speedy.

"A lot of people helped to organize the silent auction and the live auction," he said, including Samantha Clark, Theresa Stewart, Roxy Burns and Shelly Decker. Terry Coanturo, Kelly Wright and Clark also helped with the 50/50 raffles and the poker run for the bikers on the road.

JoJo Merwin helped to get many of the donations, along with Perotti, Coanturo and Stewart. Pete Steenland donated the pig for the pig roast and helped cook it along with Justin Temple, Chris Peterra and Victor Demza. John's employees Dave Rossman and Spiky Mike also jumped in to help wherever needed.

The Stamford Pool League raised $1,800 for the cause and several people donated more than $100, including:Don'sDairy, Sunrise Heating, Angela Bioade, Daniel Coade, Frank Garonsky, Pat Cannon, Larry Heiser, Dylan Gallup and Don VanEtten.

"It was a great day for a ride. If there is anyone who helped out that I have missed, I apologize. I wish to thank all those who came and supported this great event."