SIMI VALLEY : Bicycle Trek to Help Fight Disease

The two Simi Valley men stepped off their 21-speed bikes just after noon Thursday and strode into the hair salon to collect on some promises.

Twenty-one hairstylists, joining at least 18 other sponsors, pledged to donate $500 to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in conjunction with a coast-to-coast charity bicycle trek in May by Steven Lazarus and his childhood friend, Joe Lansden.

The pair expect to raise at least $35,000 to help fight the childhood respiratory disease, half of whose victims die before age 13.

“It’s something I have a passion about, and I’m going to stick with it until they solve this disease,” said Lazarus, 31, the organizer of the 23-day journey from Simi Valley to Jacksonville, Fla.

At his bidding, the representatives of seven sponsoring businesses assembled Thursday afternoon in a back room at Maverick’s Restaurant in Simi Valley.

Co-sponsor Bert Glennon said the fund-raising efforts are particularly meaningful because his two nieces suffer from cystic fibrosis.

“That’s really how I got involved,” said Glennon, the manager at All Pro Bicycle Shop.

Two weeks ago, Lazarus and Lansden began training for the trip by riding about 20 miles a day, five days a week. They hope to get up to about 80 to 100 miles a day by February, which is roughly the distance they will cover daily in crossing the country, Lansden said.

Lazarus, a former marshal for San Diego County, said he raised more than $2,000 for cystic fibrosis research when he climbed the stairs of a 16-story building 16 times in 1990.