So, why is Roland doing this ride?

Great question. I have completed two AIDS Rides, one from Boston to New York in 1999, the other from New York from Boston in 2001. I have raised over $5,000 for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the Fenway Community Health Center. I have ridden over 700 miles on these two rides and have ridden over 1,200 miles on training rides (of which I am now a certified Training Ride Leader).

Yet this year it is different.

This year it is personal.

And I’m going home to support an organization

that helps people living and dying with this disease

where I was raised: The SF Bay Area.

The producer and benefactor of this ride, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, serves the community near to where I grew up. San Francisco is the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS crisis and was where the first cases were reported in 1981, twenty years ago.

Today, 20 years later, almost 22 million men, women and children worldwide have died of AIDS, and an estimated 36 million people are living with HIV. AIDS impacts people of all ethnicities, genders, religions, and sexual orientations.

People often are misinformed about HIV and AIDS. Click here to get the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about this killer disease.

This year I’m riding 600 miles over seven days to remind myself and the world that HIV and AIDS is still killing people at an alarming rate, especially in Africa and other developing places in the world. Africa is home to 70% of the adults and 80% of the children living with HIV in the world. The estimated number of newly infected adults and children in Africa reached 3.4 million at the end of 2001. It has also been estimated that 28.1 million adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS in Africa by the end of last year. AIDS deaths totaled 3 million globally in 2001, and of the global total 2.3 million AIDS deaths occurred in Africa.

Yet, like I said above, I’m riding this year to help people in the San Francisco Bay Area who are in vital need of the support that the San Francisco AIDS Foundation provides.

But it’s not just about unseen faces for me anymore.

Because while I didn’t know anyone with HIV or AIDS, or at least I didn’t realize I did, I do now.

I know straight people who have it; I know gay people who have it.

I know Christians who have it; I know nice Jewish Girls who have it.

I know teenagers who have it; I know middle-aged adults who have it.

I know recovering drug addicts who have it.

I know computer nerds and former firefighters that have it.

I know people who’ve had it for a year.

I know people who’ve had it for seventeen years.

I know, I know, I know that it HIV and AIDS don’t discriminate.

I know, I know, I know how to prevent it.

But it is a reality that I now know personally.

Maybe you don’t know someone who has HIV or AIDS. Chances are you do.

So what am I doing about it?

I’m training… in 36 degree New York weather, with a nice 12 mph headwind biting at my face. And I’m at the gym four or more days a week, getting to know spin instructors better than they wish I did and trying to get stronger, leaner, nicer, and more fashionably conscious before my ride begins starts.

I’m teaching… new riders how in the heck they’re going to ride 350 miles to Boston, or 450 miles from Montreal to Portland, Maine, or 500 miles from the Twin Cities to Chicago, or 330 miles from Norfolk, VA to downtown Washington, D.C., or 500 miles from Amsterdam to Paris.

I’m working… with other Training Ride Leaders to make a calendar that allows new riders to know that on any training ride they always have an experienced rider in front of them, and behind them, so they’re always cared for when they’re on a training ride.

And most importantly, I’m riding in the first ever AIDS LifeCycle ride, this May 13th-19th, yes, seven days, yes, 600 miles, yes, from San Francisco to Santa Monica Boulevard (where we’ll all ride victoriously for our closing ceremonies) in Los Angeles to raise much needed funds for people I probably don’t personally know that are living and fighting onwards and upwards the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus which damages the immune system so much that the body develops the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Virus.

So. I need your help.

I need you not to feed me nor clothe me these seven days.

I need you not to feel sorry for the aches and pains that I know I’ll feel.

I need you not to say "Oy, that Roland, doing something meshugenah again."

What do I need? I need your financial support. Your hard earned money. Your money that you’ve toiled for. Not for me, not because you like me, not because you think this is a rad idea.

I need your financial support because I need to know that you know how important this issue is to all of us… and to me.

Click here to find out how you can help.