I am riding and asking your help to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic!

My dear friend, if you have known me for more than a couple of years you know that - despite not being able to participate for the past two years for personal and professional reasons - I have taken part in the AIDS Lifecyle a few times before. You must also know how incredibly excited and committed I have been each time I have ridden my bike for 585+ miles along our beautiful state, to do my part in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The ride has had a tremendous impact on my life, and has wrapped me in a world of caring, compassion and love that I had never experienced before. 

The AIDS LifeCycle is a unique, one-in-a-lifetime experience. It is the chance to focus all of one's physical and emotional energy, before and during the ride itself, towards having the largest impact possible, on the lives of as many people as possible, uniting together in the critical fight against HIV/AIDS. AIDS LifeCycle is first and foremost a message and a reminder to ourselves and the world, that no matter how long the way there, how impervious the road, how steep and tough the climb to reach our goal, we will not stop fighting, as a community, until we have won the battle against this epidemic. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is still too real and it affects all of us. We all in a way live with HIV and we all have a responsibility to do our part to win this war. We must end the epidemic, but the fuel that will make it possible is still more funds.

Funding is the key to everything we can do to reach a cure, and to drastically improve the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS. Funds enable research, support services, healthcare, and education. Without the funds raised by ALC over the years, fantastic organizations like the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the LGBT Center in Los Angeles would not have been able to reach and support the millions of individuals affected by the disease, whose lives have been improved by these incredible groups.

My Personal Commitment

Because I think that victory is within our grasp, because there are too many new infections still occurring every year, because it is not with words, but with actions that change finally occurs, this year I am making a very direct and personal commitment. 

I am asking you to join me in this effort, to show and remind me and yourself that this is too important an issue to stand by watching from the sidelines, but I am going to directly join you in helping me achieve this year's goal. If you support my ride by making a donation in my name, I will personally match dollar for dollar your contribution, doubling it. But this is not all: because of I am employed by one of America's most generous corporations in the matter of charitable giving, Microsoft, my matching contribution will also in turn be matched by Microsoft up to $10,000 per calendar year! Each dollar that you will donate, will become $3 that can change things and get us closer to our common goal. And if your employer match your donations, the giving power can be even greater.

We still have 1 month to go in 2009, at the time I wrote this, and a theoretical possible $60,000 raise that can be accomplished. Nevertheless, I am setting a very ambitious goal of $30,000 to raise this year and I truly hope you will want to help me achieve this goal.

So please, please, please: donate now, and then again in the new year. Donate what you can, and if you can't, send this message to someone who you know can. This is too important.

Thank you so much.

Lorenzo

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