Bay Windows - September 1, 2005
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com.

The ninth Ride for AIDS Resources (Ride FAR 9), the country's first AIDS bike ride event, is expected to take in $100,000, all of which goes to the beneficiary organizations, and one-third of that take will go to support programs in Zimbabwe that help reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Ride FAR founder Suzy Becker, a Bolton resident and author of the best-selling All I Need to Know I Learned from my Cat, said that she has continued to organize the event without a budget, paid staff, or advertising all these years in large part because the grassroots event has been able to accomplish so much with few resources.

"Part of it is showing that a small group of people can make a difference," said Becker.

She got the idea of an AIDS ride from her experiences taking part in a cancer bike ride, and she began organizing the rides back in 1988 as a community service project for herself and the employees of her greeting card company. The first ride took place in 1989, and ever since the ride has taken place every two years. In 1993the ride became a freestanding event separate from the greeting card business, but the basic formula has remained the same: keep it small, work with zero overhead, and donate all the funds to the organizations. That formula has helped the ride raise more than $625,000 since its founding.

The ride is based in New England, but riders fly in from all around the country to take part in the event, from as far away as California, Washington and Colorado. The funds they raise are divided three ways: one-third goes to an international organization, such as the Zimbabwe program, one-third goes to a national organization, and then each rider designates a local beneficiary in their own community to receive one third of the funds they raised. This year's national beneficiary is Project Inform, an advocacy organization dedicated to providing HIV-positive people with information about treatment and answering questions they may have about their treatment options.

Becker, who also takes part each year as a rider, said the work of the volunteers who ride and help plan the logistics of the event has been a large part of what motivates her to throw herself into planning the event year after year. About half of this year's riders have come back from last year's ride.

"It's sort of more a core of people that grows and grows, that returned either to help us out or to ride or to crew," said Becker. "And the community that has grown up around it, at this point it is probably as much my motivation as the cause, to revive it every two years."

And when Becker needed them most, that community came through. In 1999 she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent brain surgery that debilitated her to the point where for a time she could not write or even recite a telephone number. She contemplated canceling that year's ride, but the other volunteers pitched in to make it happen.

"I went ahead with the ride with a lot of help from people," she said.

The deadline to participate in this year's ride has passed, but those wanting to contribute to their effort still can. On Sept. 9, the third night of the event, Ride FAR will stage a benefit concert in Kingston featuring Catie Curtis and Lori McKenna. Also during the ride organizers will co-sponsor a town hall on HIV and AIDS, but as of press time a date and location had not been finalized. At both events people can learn more about the ride itself and decide if they want to get involved in the next ride.

The five-day ride covers an impressive amount of ground, beginning in Provincetown, swinging down to Little Compton, Rhode Island, stopping off in Kingston, Mass., and ending in Stow, Mass., stopping through other cities and towns along the way. And while a five-day bike ride may sound intimidating, Becker said novice riders can easily develop the skills they need to make the trek, and she's seen new riders train in 10-12 weeks.

"I've helped people buy a bike who've never been on a road bike," said Becker, who explained that the ride provides an extensive training manual. "You can start from nothing and really get to the point when you can ride."

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