Mn RED RIBBON RIDE

This is why I ride. I decided to ride in the Minnesota Red Ribbon Ride last year because I knew it benefited people with AIDS. When I was younger I knew two people who had AIDS/HIV and I knew how hard the disease was on them. Over the course of last spring and fall I began to bike and meet lots of people in preparation for the ride. I also learned a lot about AIDS/ HIV. I used to think that AIDS/HIV was something that I wasn’t really around and that wouldn’t really impact me. I admit that I also used to link AIDS/HIV to only Gay and Lesbian people. I found out that neither of my ideas was correct. I realized that AIDS/HIV is something that impacts everyone all over the world. Sure I don’t live in Africa, a place with huge rates of the disease, but that doesn’t mean that those of us in the US aren’t impacted by it. I realized that AIDS/HIV is something that impacts everyone in every walk of life. I met children who were born with AIDS, middle aged women who had picked it up trying drugs in their youth. I also met a grandmother who got AIDS through a blood transfusion. I figured that if all these people can struggle through daily life and fight to destroy AIDS then the least I can do it try to help as well.