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Cycling for Charity
By Linda DuShane White
If a co-worker asked you to take a week and cycle to L.A. with him, you
might think he was joking. But for Neal Adams (SCS), a SLAC employee for
28 years, and Karl Amrhein (SCS) at SLAC for 3 years, June 6-12 will
find them doing just that. AIDS/Life Cycle 3 is a 585 mile ride from San
Francisco to Los Angeles, a joint project to benefit the HIV and AIDS
programs of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the LA Gay and Lesbian
Center.
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Karl Amrhein (l) and Neil Adams
(r) (Photo by Diana Rogers) |
Adams made a similar trek in 2001. “I
wanted to do something I’d never done before, riding hundreds of miles
and training for that.” Adams says that although he knew AIDS was a good
cause, once he became more involved with the group and met people during
the training rides the cause took on a deeper meaning for him.
Each rider pledges to raise $2,500. According to Adams funding for AIDS
research has dwindled in recent years.
This will be the first AIDS fundraising ride for Amrhein, an experienced
long distance cyclist. “My wife kind of talked me into it. She is going
to be a volunteer roadie on the Medical Team.”
Amrhein’s most challenging ride to date was one he took a few years ago.
He rode 200 miles with a group from Seattle to Portland, then continued
on his own for 900 more miles. For the two weeks it took to get from
Portland to the Bay Area, he rode pulling a trailer with his camping
gear, just for the adventure of it. Amrhein was low key about his
accomplishment. “It’s a cycling route down the coast. There are some
hills.”
All Experience Levels
The 1,900 riders range from novice cyclists to experienced racers. Some
have lost family or friends to AIDS and wear photos on their backs in
memoriam. Others have themselves been diagnosed with HIV and are in the
‘Positive Pedalers’ group.
The logistics for an undertaking on the scale of AIDS/Life Cycle 3 are
mind boggling. A team of several hundred volunteers see that the
cyclists have everything they need. Adams describes it as “a rolling
city” and Amrhein adds, “Beside the riders there is the infrastructure
to support the riders, people who set up and clean up the camp, the
lunch stops, 24 hour medical team with doctors, nurses and staff to
assist in everything from bee stings to dehydration and more serious
stuff.”
Adams describes the lifeblood of the road trip: trucks. A caravan of
trucks carries gear; kitchen trucks bring hot meals; semi-trucks have
“Nice, hot showers all built in.”
The riders’ only responsibility is to set up their own tents each night
and, “To get 80 miles down the road.”
Those interested can check on the progress of this pair and/or pledge
support at:
Neal Adams’ ALC3 Web Page:
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/1345/
Karl Amrhein’s ALC3 Web Page:
http://www.aidslifecycle.org/2241/ |
