On the Road With AIDS Awareness: Stories From The Chopper Charity Tour

When we did the 2007 Chopper Raffle we decided it would be best to tour the motorcycle everywhere we could. Among others, we attended the West Coast Women’s Show, the Snowbird RV Show and the 2007 Snow Expo— not your typical biker crowds. If there was a trade show we were there and we had a lot of fun going.

Towards the end of the raffle we started hitting a lot of bars, pubs and nightclubs. We figured hey, if these kind folks are willing to let us ride our charity chopper through their front door, hell yeah— we’ll take them up on that.

Of course this was also a blast.

But there is one place we’ve been knocking away and no matter how much we work on it and how many Facebook groups, MySpace pages and blogsites we have started it just hasn’t yield the results we wanted and that’s the internet.

When we go to the bars or events, we can show off our bikes, talk to folks and get the girls to help people fill out their entries. On the web this isn’t as easy to do.

So after a bit of trial-and-error and having read a book or two about online marketing strategies we decided the best way to approach the web is by showing people who we are and what we are doing out in the community. I’m shooting video right now for Youtube and we are going to continue our dialogue with the Internet community through blogging and online social groups. We are also focused on building our own online community centered on a great charitable cause, badass choppers and gorgeous girls.

As a bonus I’m going to be putting this, my tales from the tour, online from now on so that people know who’s supporting our causes and winning our choppers and where you kind find us next out in your community.

We are also accepting donations and delivering entries for the prize chopper online now. You can check out the website at www.choppertickets.com.

I’m hoping that we can continue to “Spread The Word” about the 2008 AIDS Awareness Custom Chopper Contest online and I’m sure that like all of our other endeavors we are also bound to have a little fun.

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.

WIN A CUSTOM CHOPPER
TO MAKE A $20 DONATION TO AIDS VANCOUVER AND ENTER TO WIN A CHOPPER CLICK HERE

TO MAKE A $50 DONATION TO AIDS VANCOUVER AND ENTER TO WIN THE CHOPPER CLICK HERE!!!

TO MAKE A $100 DONATION TO AIDS VANCOUVER AND ENTER TO WIN THE CHOPPER CLICK HERE!!!

Vancouver Chopper in 24 Hours

Random Photos from 2007

Above: Troy Teather show off the 2007 first prize AIDS Vancouver Chopper from the 2007 event with the AIDS Vancouver team.



Above: We have a winner!!! Tim Somerville from New Westminster BC won the 2007 AIDS Vancouver Chopper and is seen here showing it off with bike designer and Vancouver Chopper owner Troy Teather.



Above: Tim and his sis showing some Chopper Love.



Vancouver Chopper owner Troy and Cammie Teather at the 2008 Naughty But Nice Taboo Sex Show

Win a Custom Chopper and Support AIDS Vancouver at the 2008
Vancouver Motorcycle Show

Vancouver Chopper’s motorcycle models will be on-hand at this year’s Vancouver
Motorcycle Show at the Tradex in Abbotsford accepting entries for the AIDS Awareness
Custom Chopper Contest. For a $20 donation to AIDS Vancouver contestants enter to
win a Vancouver Custom Chopper Motorcycle.

Tim Somerville won AIDS Vancouver’s last Custom Chopper in December. He said at
the time he was just happy to put the money towards a great cause but he never thought
he would win.

“This disease is leaving some people in some very tough situations and it’s kind of been
shunned upon,” Somerville said. “So to have something like this where you bring out
this cause with a super cool chopper... it puts a better light on it showing that it really
touches everybody.”

He almost missed his opportunity to win the chopper in 2007 all together.

“I walked by it the first time and then I decided to go back, hit a bank machine and buy a
ticket,” Somerville said. “I won it for $20 and it was just another $20 that came out of
my pocket for a good cause.”

Somerville said his new motorcycle will need new tires after he rides it through 2008.

According to AIDS Vancouver executive director William Booth the 2008 AIDS
Awareness Contest is going to be even bigger than the chopper fundraiser in 2007.

“AIDS Vancouver has been providing support to those infected or affected by HIV
Disease and promoting public awareness and prevention to the community for 25 years,”
Booth said. “This campaign will be one way to acknowledge this commitment to the
public.”

Visitors to the Vancouver Motorcycle Show will be able to enter the 2008 AIDS
Awareness Custom Chopper Contest at the Vancouver Custom Chopper Motorcycles
booth in Custom Chopper Ally. The contest rules and entry details are available at the
Motorcycle Show, or online at www.vancouverchopper.com.

For more information contact John Pigeon at (604) 987-9699 or by email at
johnp@aidsvancouver.org





Above: The beautiful Amanda (front) and Sasha (back) show off the prize chopper in the 2008 AIDS Awareness Custom Chopper Contest at the Vancouver Motorcycle Show.



Above: Shannon(back) and Chantel(front) show off the prize chopper in the 2008 AIDS Awareness Chopper Contest at the 2007 Vancouver Taboo Show.