Chicago, IL — Chicago Ride For AIDS Chicago, scheduled for June 5 & 6, 2004, is now accepting registrations. The two-day, 190-mile bicycle fund raising event will take riders from Chicago's Hollywood Beach to Lake Geneva, WI, and back. Ride For AIDS Chicago will raise money and awareness for the programs and services offered by Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) and Better Existence with HIV (BEHIV), two of Chicago's leading HIV and AIDS service organizations.

Ride For AIDS Chicago is different from other bicycle fundraising events seen in the past - it is a grass roots adventure with a commitment to deliver 100% of donations to the beneficiaries. Each rider or crewmember will pay a $65 registration fee that will cover most expenses for the ride, including meals and accommodations. Riders will raise a minimum of $1,000 in pledges that will go to HIV/AIDS care and prevention services delivered by TPAN and BEHIV.

“This ride and the money it raises is of extreme importance,” states TPAN executive director Charles Clifton. “In the face of federal budget cuts and restrictions on HIV prevention efforts, community based organizations like TPAN are making difficult choices in order to provide services with less funding to an ever increasing number of individuals living with HIV.

“Here at TPAN we are proud of the fact that we continue to provide quality prevention, support, and treatment education services and programs to thousands of individuals living with HIV and AIDS. And despite restrictions and budget cuts, as always, Test Positive Aware Network remains committed to providing peer-led programming and advocating for the rights and needs of HIV-positive people, both locally and nationally.”

Participants of Ride For AIDS Chicago can expect a weekend of friendship and empowerment as they leave Hollywood Beach on Saturday morning and share the experience of riding to Williams Bay, WI.  Riders will rest overnight at the Wesley Woods Retreat Center on Lake Geneva, complete with cabins, showers and meals.  On Sunday, riders will return to Chicago and celebrate their victory.  On both days, riders will experience the beauty of winding country roads of southeast Wisconsin and along shaded bicycle paths secluded from traffic and noise of the cities.

Participants needing support for fundraising and training will have the opportunity to take advantage of organized training rides and fundraising forums being offered by Chicago Ride for AIDS volunteer organizers.  These volunteers have a tremendous amount of experience in this area and wish to provide all the support needed by participants without adding to the cost of the event.  Support for riders along the route will consist of donated food and purified water, as well as volunteer driven route vehicles to care for riders in need of any unanticipated mechanical or medical problems.

For more information about Ride For AIDS Chicago, or to register as a rider or crewmember, please call 773.989.9400 or visit www.RIDEforAIDS.org. 

TPAN provides peer-led HIV programming, outreach, support services, information dissemination, and advocacy. TPAN publishes and distributes two HIV/AIDS journals, Positively Aware and Positively Aware en Español, as well as the bilingual Chicago Area HIV Services Directory, and the Chicago Area Directory of HIV Professionals.

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