The FINAL 545
As you may have heard, 2025 will be the last year that the AIDS/LifeCycle ride is held. Rising costs of production, and reduced ridership and fundraising in the aftermath of the pandemic led to this difficult decision. San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center will continue their important work providing education, prevention, and treatment until HIV/AIDS is finally a thing of the past. They, and those they serve continue to need our support.
So, please join Team Smiley in making it the most successful year ever!
Team Smiley hit the pavement for the first time in 2015 with humble goals. We wanted to offer AIDS/LifeCycle participants from the Sacramento region a team choice whose membership came principally from the area they trained in, a team born out of fun and inclusivity. We only had 9 members that first year, with modest fundraising success. But, we have grown.
From that first ride through 2024, the Smileys have proudly raised $685 thousand. We have grown modestly, from the first nine members to as many as 24, with a high fundraising year of $132k in 2022.
We may be small, but we love ALC and our little community of riders very much. So, it is heartbreaking for us that this coming ride in 2025 will be the last AIDS/LifeCycle. It has also lit a fire for us to do more, as much as we possibly can for this Final 545. We already have 35 members, and we have set a fundraising goal for the Team at $200k. But secretly, we’d love to break $1 million in cumulative fundraising in our last year.
What has ALC accomplished in the years since that first ride in 1994?
Well, they have raised $700 million to combat HIV. They have raised awareness about HIV/AIDS. They have helped to alleviate the stigma surrounding the disease and have worked to dispel the misinformation about HIV. They have provided education. They have provided testing. And for those who have come down with the virus, they have facilitated their treatment. As medical advancement has occurred, they have guided those at risk of contracting the disease to preventative options, greatly reducing transmission of the virus.
AIDS/LifeCycle has done something else. They have created a community and home for a group of passionate activists. They have created a family — a family Team Smiley are now part of. We don’t know what will become of this family when the last participants cross the finish line on June 8th next year. But in the meantime, we will be doing the very most we can to make ALC 2025 the most successful ride ever.
After the pandemic, in 2022, ALC raised a record $17.8 million dollars.
We will help destroy that record. As noted above the members of Team Smiley have raised nearly $700 thousand since we first rode out of the Cow Palace in 2015 — we are determined to raise not tens, but hundreds of thousands of dollars more in this final year.
It's difficult to adequately express how much this ride means to all of Team Smiley, and to everyone who holds ALC dear. Honestly, we are grieving a bit. Our hearts hurt. The news has also reenergized Team Smiley, driving us to want to do the most we can for this cause we believe so wholeheartedly in, and the family we love so much.
We need your help!
It's been so incredibly humbling to see the generosity of our families, friends, coworkers. We've seen what our supporters are capable of, and you know we can’t do this work alone. No person or team can. We need your help. We need your charity, your generosity, now more than ever. Please, friends, if you can, donate to AIDS/LifeCycle. Every single dollar counts.
Join us. One last time. Let’s do some good.