ON THE ROAD WITH AIDS AWARENESS: Tales From The Chopper Charity Tour 2

When I last sat down with some of my friends at AIDS Vancouver they mentioned that fighting the stigma surrounding HIV disease and AIDS is the hardest battle in the war on AIDS. It’s a sentiment that was also mentioned numerous times in a book I just finished called 28 Stories of AIDS In Africa.

People will generally tell themselves that they are not the ones who are going to transmit the disease or “only gay men and drug users get AIDS.” When the disease first arrived in Africa they couldn’t even explain who was getting it or why— but if you did have it you were cast aside to die alone.

The truth is that folks who feel they aren’t at risk and engage in risky behaviour because “it will never happen to them,” are the ones who are getting the disease. People who aren’t thinking, planning, screening for or just talking about HIV disease and AIDS are the ones who are the highest at risk.

So we talk about it with everyone who listens. With our chopper contest we’re trying to raise money for AIDS Vancouver so they can talk to young people about HIV/AIDS and we can see that rate of transmission drop. We still hear people deny they are at risk or blame it on a demographic that is not their own but for the most part people are changing the way they see this disease and becoming more proactive.

There are approximately 15,000 people who are living in Canada with HIV disease who don’t know they have been infected. Every two hours another person gets HIV. AIDS is not curable and even with antiretroviral drugs it is painful and will gradually deteriorate your health.

Donate to AIDS Vancouver now and enter to win a Vancouver Custom Chopper Motorcycle. Visit www.choppertickets.com to help spread the word about HIV prevention and join the fight against AIDS in Canada.

ON THE ROAD WITH AIDS AWARENESS: STORIES FROM THE CHOPPER CHARITY TOUR 1

The first chopper tour didn’t exactly start off with a bang. The boss was out of town, the printer was on hold and we got the call that the paperwork was finalized and we were beginning that day. But when the call did come, we busted our asses to get the tickets out, made an appearance on a local TV show and got to work setting up for our first one-day event.

We’ve learned a lot since then. We are still working with AIDS Vancouver and we are happy that our motorcycle raised a good chunk of dough with them in 2007. We are spending more time taking our charity chopper to bars and events and now where you find the choppers you’ll find the chopper girls who are accepting donations for AIDS Vancouver.

We’ve even started to throw our own events with upcoming AIDS Awareness Custom Chopper Parties being planned in Lower Mainland clubs, pubs and venues. We are even planning our first annual North Shore Show ‘N’ Shine where we will be promoting AIDS Awareness in our own backyard. There have been talks about having our girls out and washing vehicles for the cause but we’ll see how it goes.

One of the things that we’ve learned along the way is the importance of keeping an open dialogue with consumers, donors, fans and partners. The more we talk to people on tour, the more we learn about what people are looking for and who out there wants to support our worthy cause and enter to win the badass choppers.

People want to pitch in and help and most times they already have an idea as to how they want to contribute. The more people I talk to the more I believe in our work and want to see AIDS Vancouver with an even bigger pile of dough then they received in 2008. Knowing that there are so many people out there who want to help just reinforces to us that AIDS Awareness is an important cause.

Things are looking pretty good. We’re meeting lots of new people who want to help us take our charitable work across the country and we’re promoting AIDS Vancouver and HIV/AIDS Awareness everywhere we go.

To make a donation and enter to win one of our badass choppers visit www.choppertickets.com.