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Bike run for safe driving to honor woman killed in head-on collision

Mary Donato talks about "the accident" but can't bring herself to utter the words that her husband, Charlie, offers with grim stoicism.

Mary Donato talks about "the accident" but can't bring herself to utter the words that her husband, Charlie, offers with grim stoicism.

They are sitting in the kitchen of their Washington Township home talking about "the day our daughter was killed," Charlie Donato says.

Tears well in Mary Donato's eyes. "I still can't say those words," she says.

Toni Donato Bolis, 28, died June 1 after a head-on collision on Pitman-Downer Road less than a half-mile from her South Jersey home and, in the opposite direction, less than a half-mile from the home where her parents and two younger sisters live.

Bolis, a Web designer who lived with her husband, Eric, and their young daughter, Mia, was driving home from a doctor's appointment.

She was in the ninth month of a pregnancy, and her unborn son (she and her husband had selected the name Ryan Jeffrey) was also killed.

The accident is still under investigation, but police say a 21-year-old Glassboro man swerved into the opposite lane of the two-lane road and struck Bolis' car.

The Donatos say police told them that phone records indicate the man was using his cellphone at the time. Washington Township police could not be reached for comment.

Their daughter and their unborn grandson, they say, were the victims of modern technology, of a youth culture in which multitasking is a virtue and electronic communication a constant.

"I don't go on a computer," says Mary Donato, 52. "I'm still in 1958. I like it there. But these kids . . ."

Sunday at noon, there will be a motorcycle run in memory of "Toni and Baby RJ Bolis." The event was organized by friends of Charlie Donato, 54, a businessman who is a motorcycle enthusiast.

A poster touting the run includes a picture of Bolis holding her daughter, who will turn 3 in August. They are sitting on Charlie Donato's Harley.

"Look at that smile," Mary Donato says, pointing to the picture of her oldest daughter. Then she brings out a collage of photos, dozens affixed to several poster boards, photos of her daughter Toni as a baby, as a child, a teenager, a grown woman.

"The smile never changes," her father says. "She was just a wonderful kid."

The purpose of the bike run is twofold: to raise money for a college fund for Mia, and to raise awareness about safe driving.

None of it will bring Bolis back, Mary Donato says, but maybe it will help another family avoid the unspeakable anguish that she, her husband, and their other daughters, Annette, 24, and Angela, 22, have been dealing with for the last 51/2 weeks.

Charlie Donato will be one of the riders in the bike run, which will begin at Barb's Harley-Davidson shop on the Black Horse Pike in West Collingswood Heights.

The riders will travel to Washington Township; past the scene of the accident; past Bolis' home, where her husband and daughter will be watching; and then over to South Philadelphia to Geno's Steaks.

Joey Vento, the owner of Geno's, is one of several individuals supporting the event.

"We'll drive past my daughter's home so that Mia can see all the bikes," Charlie Donato says. "My granddaughter loves to look at motorcycles."

The Donatos hope the bike run will become an annual event raising awareness of safe driving. They are depending on the justice system to deal with the man who caused their daughter's death.

They are searching for their own ways to deal with their loss.

"It's surreal," Charlie Donato says. "You hear about other people's tragedies . . ."

His voice trails off, and then he shakes his head.

"Every night I cry myself to sleep."