Happy Birthday, Lifeway!

Lifeway Foods Inc. is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a yearlong bash. To get the party started, the Morton Grove, Ill.-based manufacturer of kefir, a fermented milk beverage featuring probiotics, calcium and protein, is undertaking “The Lifeway 25th Anniversary Tour,” an 11-week cross-country odyssey.

As the company was founded in 1986, the tour will pay tribute to that unforgettable decade with a range of free activities, among them pedaling customized human-powered blender bikes, posing for 1980s-styled photos using green-screen technology, playing digital games and receiving Foursquare check-in prizes. Visitors can also get a taste of the company’s products, including the limited-edition Lowfat Birthday Cake offering, created in honor of the company milestone.

The trip back in time will make weeklong stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Boston, before culminating in New York City, where Lifeway’s CEO, Julie Smolyansky, and CFO, Edward Smolyansky, will ring the NASDAQ stock-market closing bell in Times Square on May 16.

Along with all of the fun, Lifeway will donate a total of $25,000 to Healthy Kids Challenge, as part of the company’s goal is to have visitors in tour stop generate 2,500 minutes of pedal power on the human-powered blender bikes within the week. For every minute a visitor pedals, Lifeway will give $1 to the organization, which helps school, community, businessand health leaders encourage healthy habits in youngsters.

“Lifeway’s donation will enable Healthy Kids Challenge to expand the number of schools and youth organizations we can support with our nutrition education programs in the 10 cities the anniversary tour visits,” said Vickie L. James, executive director of Dighton, Kan.-based Healthy Kids Challenge “Together we can make a difference in young people’s lives.”

Consumers in search of additional tour information can visit www.lifewaykefir.com/tour.