80 yr.old with CMT to bike for kids

[Guest guest]

Man makes trek to raise money for children

BY JESSICA FLATHMANN, The Island Packet

Published Saturday, May 15th, 2004

Tony Palumbo isn't just taking a joy ride on his bicycle during the next

month as he travels about 1,500 miles from Florida to New York. The

80-year-old has taken to his bike to raise money to help create a home

for children in need.

With his legs in braces to help support them and clothing carefully

packed in bags hanging from the back of his bike, Palumbo began his trek

Wednesday in ville, Fla. He reached Jasper County on Friday.

While the trip will be long and might be hard, he said it will be worth

it to raise money to help the children at the Northeast Parent and Child

Society.

" Some of this will get through to these children and some will be

grateful, " Palumbo said. He said when a child becomes grateful for the

help, " then you've, in a sense, reproduced a new citizen, a better

citizen. "

The nonprofit group was founded in 1888 to serve children in need

through family programs, residential programs and foster care programs

in the Albany, Troy and Schenectady areas of New York. The money raised

will go toward equipment and staff for a new dormitory to treat up to

eight boys at a time between the ages of 12 and 16 years old.

The Mohawk Dormitory Treatment Program will be designed to treat those

in most severe need of care because of problems such as violence or

destructiveness. Children who could be placed in the dormitory are now

being placed in psychiatric hospitals or out-of-state care. The state

refers children to the society.

Palumbo became involved with the society when he started working in its

maintenance department in 1986. He worked there for 15 years and along

the way helped some of the children by allowing them to work alongside

him.

Palumbo took a similar trek before for the society. He went 3,200 miles

from Vancouver, Canada, to Schenectady 10 years ago, raising almost

$20,000 for the society's Schaffer Children's Shelter.

He hopes to raise at least the same amount during this trip.

But on this ride, Palumbo has to deal with a health issue and needs

specially designed braces for his legs. He has Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a

degenerative disease of the sensory and voluntary nervous system.

" I look at myself in the mirror and I say, 'Oh my God, how the hell am I

going to make this?' " Palumbo said. But knowing he will help the

children has been his motivation, and he wants to make it to Schenectady

for them.