With support from Temple University’s Department of Campus Safety Services, Amber Sagar, a Project HOME resident at 1515 Fairmount Ave., celebrated her birthday with a fine showing in the annual Irish Pub Children’s Foundation Tour de Shore Philadelphia to Atlantic City bicycle race.

Sagar, who was recently homeless, took to bicycling a few months ago. After some searching online, she came across the Tour de Shore and mentioned her interest in participating in it to Project HOME Program Manager Alexis Pugh.

Pugh, who is married to Campus Safety Services Detective King Paramore, knows the race quite well. She rides in a support van with Special Services Capt. Eileen Bradley and cheers on her husband.

Within a few days, Bradley had arranged for Sagar to participate in the ride with the Campus Safety Services team, which arranged a sponsorship through Executive Director Charles J. Leone.

Sagar began her practice regimen three months before the July 19 race. But two weeks before the big day, the chain popped on her bicycle. Campus Safety Services loaned her a bicycle for the race and is pursuing the purchase of a permanent bicycle for her.

When Sagar was sized for the bicycle and picked up her Temple T-shirt to wear during the race, Pugh said, “she was smiling so hard, with so much joy, it’s infectious.”

Pugh said that on race day Sagar surpassed all expectations through grit and determination, finishing the 65-mile race in 4 hours and 36 minutes. Pugh, Sagar’s mother and many of her Temple teammates greeted her at the finish line.

“She’s just overjoyed. She’s still telling the story about her adventure,” Pugh said of Sagar. “We’ve always worked with Temple in some fashion. It was just natural that I would be able to make a call and figure out how to make this happen. It was great to know that the connections can be made that simply and that easily. It solidifies that we’re here, we’re serving the community, and we’re touching people, one soul at a time.”