On a hot and sunny Monday morning on June 2, roughly 2,500 cyclists took a few minutes to recuperate at a rest stop in Windy Hill Park in Marina before continuing south. The next day, they pedaled out of San Lorenzo County Park in King City. They were just beginning a week-long, 545-mile journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles with a shared purpose: to honor and support the HIV/AIDS community.
Since the annual ride began in 1994, AIDS/LifeCycle participants raised over $300 million to support programs run by the host organizations: the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. However, due to rising costs for hosting the event, along with declining ridership and fundraising outcomes, the ride became financially unsustainable. More than 30 years in, this was the final ride – but its impacts will continue.
“We are incredibly proud of the impact the ride has had on our local communities and the HIV epidemic nationally,” Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Joe Hollendoner said in a statement. “Funds from this event helped change the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic. No longer is HIV the death sentence it was when the ride began thanks to the advancement in treatments.”
“The work remains as important as ever.”
Decades of advocacy and fundraising events like AIDS/LifeCycle have made HIV/AIDS far more manageable and survivable. The two host organizations alone provide tens of thousands of clients with comprehensive HIV treatment, HIV and STI screenings and access to PrEP, among other resources, every year. Programs and research have dramatically reduced the spread of HIV in California and improved the quality of life for those that live with it.
However, funding for HIV and AIDS research and treatment is falling victim to local and federal budget cuts. Los Angeles County recently announced its termination of HIV and STI prevention contracts ahead of expected federal cuts to those same services. “We’ve worked so hard for the past three decades to get HIV and AIDS to a place where it’s manageable. I feel that progress is at risk,” says Manuel “Manny” Apolonio, a four-year AIDS/LifeCycle rider and board member of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
He recommends that people continue to support organizations like these, even without the iconic bike ride: “These foundations really have their finger on the pulse of what’s most needed.”
He also shares the value that AIDS/LifeCycle brought to its participants, “When you have a real-life event like this, it gives people so many opportunities to have connection, and I think that’s what gives people the joy that this ride is meant to produce.”
AIDS/LifeCycle is unsure as to whether the event may return. “The work remains as important as ever,” says Tyler TerMeer, CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “We look forward to working with the AIDS/LifeCycle community to find meaningful ways to continue the ride’s legacy.”
(1) comment
Thank you so much for covering this. I participated in the event from 1996 to 2015 as a volunteer supporting the cyclists, setting up camp sites, etc. Along with the impact it made through raising funds for the larger community, the AIDS LifeCycycle created it's own community for seven days each June. I met so many amazing, lifelong friends and my wife of 25 years.
The event also supported local towns along the route which saw an influx of people one day a year to spend money and support small business as the cyclists traveled down the coast. Pezinni Farms feed 2,500 people fried artichokes in one day. In Bradley, the town set up a fundraiser each year with burger's and t-shirts. They raised enough money to fund their schools for the year and provide scholarships to students for college.
The event will be greatly missed, but its legacy will live on in all the cyclists, volunteers and staff that have participated over the years.
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