Calabasas resident completes AIDS bike ride

THE WHEEL DEAL—Elliot Lemberger of Calabasas celebrateat the half-way mark of his AIDS fundraising bicycle ride from SaFrancisco to Los Angeles.

Before he began the seven

day, 585-mile AIDS LifeCycle

Ride 2005 from San Francisco to

Los Angeles, Elliot Lemberger

had never met anyone with HIV.

He says he signed up for the ride

so he could “meet people and

have a new experience.”

Along the way Lemberger, a

28-year-old graphic artist who

grew up in Calabasas, raised over

$5,000 for HIV and AIDS ser

vices while traveling with 1,600

other riders who collectively

brought in donations totaling $7

million.

Lemberger rode behind a group called the “positive pedalers,” 100 HIV-positive individuals. “Throughout the week I became friendly with a number of ‘Positive Pedalers,” Lemberger said in a thank-you letter he sent to his sponsors, “including a woman who rode her 100,000th mile for AIDS.”

As the pack rode through dozens of towns along the way, people came out of their homes holding blown-up pictures of loved ones who had died of the disease.

“In one town, a community came together and hosted a rest stop for the riders with homemade ice cream, strawberries and free massages,” Lemberger said.

In the evenings, the riders rested up while listening to speakers talk of their personal experiences with AIDS. “One night a woman got up, stated that she was 38 years old, had HIV for exactly half of her life, and without the services of the foundations that we were raising money for, would not be alive,” he recalled. That was a recurring theme throughout the week.

When the riders pedaled into LA on day seven, they were greeted by cheering crowds whose “applause made us feel like heroes,” Lemberger recalled.

Lemberger, who was born in London, England, attended Chaparral Elementary, A.E. Wright and Calabasas High schools.

The ride, sponsored by San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, is an annual event that supports AIDS services and education, as well as increases public awareness of the ongoing urgency of the AIDS situation.

For more information, visit www.aidslifecycle.org.

—Leslie Haukoos