(2013 AIDS/LifeCycle) AIDS/LifeCycle Participants Make History; Raise Record $14.2 Million!

photo credit: AIDS/LifeCycle.

SAN FRANCISCO/ LOS ANGELES—Participants of AIDS/LifeCycle 2013 began their 545-mile bicycle journey Sunday from San Francisco to Los Angeles having raised a record-setting $14.2 million to support San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the HIV/AIDS- related services of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. Their accomplishment shatters the event’s previous fundraising peak and establishes a new world record by nearly one million dollars.

“I’m absolutely astounded and enormously grateful for the 20-year fundraising record set by this year’s riders and roadies,” said L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri L. Jean, “especially since the need for these funds has never been greater. Today we have the tools to stop the spread of the disease and to help people with HIV live longer , healthier lives, but the epidemic is far from over. The AIDS/LifeCycle community, which includes riders and roadies of all ages and from 18 different countries, is essential to funding the Center’s life-saving services for people who might not otherwise be able to afford them."


By the time this year’s AIDS/LifeCycle ends, participants will mark two huge milestones: two
decades of riding and 20 million miles. Collectively, since the event was founded as  California AIDS Ride in 1993, cyclists will have ridden 20 million miles to help end AIDS and provide care for those living with the virus. That’s equivalent to traveling back and forth to the moon more than 40 times, or around the world 800 times.

“It’s difficult to find a community more dedicated to a cause than the participants of
AIDS/LifeCycle, and this year’s record fundraising shows it,” said Neil Giuliano, CEO of San
Francisco AIDS Foundation. “At a time when HIV/AIDS services face potentially devastating
cuts at all levels of government, it’s tremendously encouraging to see the AIDS/LifeCycle
community step up in such a substantial way to make sure we can continue to provide life-
saving services to all people living with or at risk for HIV.”

Despite remarkable progress that has been made since the disease was first reported in 1981, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is far from over. The infection rate continues to rise among gay and bisexual men—the only group for which this is the case—with communities of color especially hard hit. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one in five people infected with HIV doesn’t know it. AIDS/LifeCycle’s Premier Presenting Sponsor is So You Think You Can Dance on Fox.

Presenting Sponsors are The Shopoff Group and FedEx. Other sponsors include Abbvie, Gilead Sciences, and Wells Fargo. The official Bike Sponsor is Cannondale, and the official Media Sponsor is Instinct Magazine.

For more information or to donate to a cyclist, visit www.aidslifecycle.org

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