Cycling 5000 miles this summer, two recent college graduates are embarking on a journey to raise funds for childhood cancer research, making one of twenty tour stops in New York City on July 13. The initiative, benefiting Atlanta-based Rally Foundation, is a grassroots campaign called Rally Across America that will travel through much of the eastern United States and began in Atlanta on June 1.

While most college graduates are looking to take that first step on the corporate ladder, Austin Bauman, 22, and Tom Reardon, 21, are taking on a three month challenge to raise funds and awareness for the Rally Foundation and childhood cancer research. The need for adventure and the desire to make a difference are two of the driving forces for a team of volunteers, mostly students, from across the country that are promoting and making the tour possible.

“When you see the faces of these kids, you can’t help but want to do something,” said Bauman. “I’m not a professional cyclist, but I’m doing this for them. If they can fight cancer, I can bike 5,000 miles. I’m hoping that cyclists and communities everywhere will look at what we are doing and donate a penny per mile. Together, we can do this.”

Hosting a fundraiser at the Outback Steakhouse in White Plaines, New York from 11:30am – 1:30pm and visiting with local patients and families at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the NYU Medical Center, the fundraiser will include an introduction of the local Rally Kid, a raffle for products from sponsors, and an explanation by riders Bauman and Reardon of their journey and $250,000 goal. Tickets for the fundraiser, which include lunch from Outback, are $15.

“We believe that the grassroots are the key to funding the research needed to develop better treatments and cures for childhood cancer,” said Dean Crowe, founder and president of the Rally Foundation. “It is imperative that communities come together to eliminate the number one disease killer among children ages 0 to 20.”

The Rally Foundation donates 100 percent of its proceeds to Children’s Oncology Group (COG) hospitals nationwide and is backed by Aflac, Wrigley’s Big League Chew and Leader Enterprises. Rally Across America has become a primary fundraising initiative for the Foundation and has garnered its own support from hometown shop Roswell Bicycles, national conglomerates Outback Steakhouse and Vineyard Vines, and local Gwinnett Place Ford.

For more information about the Rally Foundation or the Rally Across America tour, visit www.RallyAcrossAmerica.org.