For two days in November, SMART Riders rode 165 miles from Miami to Key West to raise funds for local HIV organizations, and last Sunday, they celebrated their victory with a check presentation ceremony at Hunters Nightclub in Wilton Manors, within the greater Fort Lauderdale area.
The 19th annual Southern Most HIV/AIDS Ride (SMART Ride) is the second largest AIDS bike ride in country. The November ride raised a total of $1,043,270, bringing the ride’s lifetime total to $15,954,344, according to South Florida Gay News.
At the Sunday celebration, checks were presented to the following Florida HIV groups:
- AH of Monroe County Inc., (originally AIDS Help) in the Florida Keys
- Broward House, which serves Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale
- Compass Community Center, in Palm Beach County
- EPIC (Empath Partners in Care), in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties
- Miracle of Love Inc., in Orlando and serving Central Florida
- Pridelines, an LGBTQ community center in Miami that serves South Florida.
When the SMART Ride 19 ended on November 19, the riders were $12,000 short of a million dollars, South Florida Gay News reports. But at the closing ceremony, founder Glen Weinzimer urged participants to dig deep—and they did, raising an additional $55,270.
Below is a post from the closing ceremony in November:
The success made for a nice sendoff for Weinzimer, who announced that he is stepping down and that Todd Delmay is the new executive director, though both Weinzimer and Delmay will collaborate on this year’s fundraising event.
“Todd is embedded in our community and is a part of our community,” Weinzimer told the newspaper. “He’s not doing it because he needs a job. He’s doing it because he wants to lead something that, at the end of the day, he knows made a difference.”
This year’s SMART Ride 20 is scheduled for November 17 and 18. To register and learn more, visit TheSmartRide.org.
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