The Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS: What It Was and How It Worked

Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS ran from 2001 to 2013, a Dallas to Fort Worth charity cycling event that raised money for three HIV service agencies in North Texas. Trinity Miles keeps the record of that ride, its editions and its route, and of the charity cycling the region still runs today. This page sets out how the event was organised, how it was structured, and how it ended.

What was the Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS?

For thirteen years, participants rode to fund HIV services. According to the Dallas Voice's Dallas HIV nonprofit archive, the organization donated more than $2 million since 2001 to three beneficiaries: AIDS Outreach Center, AIDS Services of Dallas, and Resource Center. The event sat in the charity ride tradition of North Texas, and North Texas history and the ride is exactly the ground Trinity Miles covers, both the ride that ended and the riding that continues.

The ride's organisational home was Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS itself, run by a board of directors. Board president Jacque Borel spoke for it in the coverage of the closure. Riders, crew, and donors made up the community that kept it moving each year.

How the ride ran year after year

Each year followed a production cycle rather than a single day. The organisation staged a ride, and editions ran consecutively for thirteen years. Editions A Timeline of the Lone tracks that sequence. Riders trained and raised funds over months before the weekend, and volunteers carried the bulk of the work. The board reviewed returns annually, and that review is what eventually ended the event.

The event's origins matter to the structure. Janie Bush, who was the director of the Lone Star Ride for its first five years, had been pledge drive office manager for the Tanqueray Texas AIDS Ride, a four day bike ride from Houston to Dallas that predated Lone Star Ride. That earlier ride was expensive to produce and brought little return to its beneficiary agencies. Bush was hired to create the new Lone Star Ride, and she said she tried to incorporate its heart and soul.

"The event was supportive, encouraging and uplifting," she said of what she built. She described the camaraderie of fundraising and training, and the sight of someone who had once been told HIV was a death sentence succeeding on the route.

What was the route?

The ride ran as a weekend event, with pit stops and campsites along the way. Equipment was hauled from point to point during the ride. The geography tied Dallas, Glen Rose, and Fort Worth into one course, and the Dallas to Glen Rose route sets out that ground in more detail.

The course put riders on country roads across North Texas over the two days, and it made the ride a physical test as well as a fundraiser. Pit stops were spaced along the route, campsites held riders overnight, and the logistics of moving people and gear shaped the weekend.

What did the weekend look like?

The ride was a weekend programme, not a single morning. Riders and crew assembled, the course ran across two days, and pit stops and campsites punctuated the distance. The weekend programme structure follows that shape from check in to finish.

Support services kept riders fed and moving. AIDS Services of Dallas used its restaurant connections to have snacks for pit stops and meals donated. One board member worked for Starbucks and arranged for the company to provide the coffee. Trucks that hauled equipment to the pit stops and campsites were donated for the weekend rather than rented. Rider and crew shirts were donated rather than bought.

Photography recorded each edition. Roger Lippert photographed the ride every year and said getting together annually was like a family reunion. Suppliers felt the same way. Sylvia Salazar King, vice president of Ambient Stage Lighting, wrote on Facebook that the company was honoured to take part every year and would miss the friends and memories it made.

How was the money raised and where did it go?

Expenses were kept low by design. A ride director was the only salaried staff member, and that cost was covered by a grant. Volunteers did the bulk of the work rather than paid staff, as had been the case with the earlier Tanqueray ride. Goods and services were donated. The beneficiary funding structure explains how the proceeds were divided across the agencies.

In 2013, the ride raised $28,000 for each of the three beneficiaries, but that fell short of the organisation's goal. The money went to AIDS Outreach Center, AIDS Services of Dallas, and Resource Center. The ride had also fallen short of its goal in the two prior years, and the board weighed the effort and expense of staging a 2014 ride against those returns.

Why did the ride end?

Borel pointed to a decline in sponsors, volunteers, and riders. He said the organisation felt a responsibility to the people donating money to be responsible with that money. In a letter to participants and sponsors, the board concluded that Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS was no longer an effective vehicle to raise money for its beneficiaries. The board also cited bad luck with weather over the previous three years, a dwindling volunteer base, and harder sponsorship.

"There didn't seem to be the same interest as there once was," Borel said. "And the returns weren't meeting expectations."

In the press release announcing the decision, the board wrote that based on the return for 2013 and the two prior years, the effort and expense required to stage a 2014 ride and subsequent events were not justified. Borel called the decision heartbreaking, and said the board was trying to be good stewards with the money. "We'll have to look for another way to raise money for the beneficiaries," he said.

What did the beneficiaries lose?

The three agencies had to plan around a funding stream that stopped. Resource Center CEO Cece Cox said the centre's budget was set for the year and the loss of the ride created a hole, and that the loss of the event and the funding to serve HIV positive clients would be regretted. She hoped riders, crew, sponsors, and other community members would step in to help fill the gap.

The board's own message asked the same. It thanked the riders, crew, and donors who had shared the road over thirteen years and encouraged them to continue the fight by directly supporting AIDS Outreach Center, AIDS Services of Dallas, and Resource Center Dallas.

Where did riders go next?

Bush suggested riders and crew keep fundraising among their friends for the agencies, or help make their other fundraising events bigger. Rather than reinvent the wheel, she said, they could put their energy into LifeWalk, Black Tie Dinner, or No Tie Dinner, or volunteer for one of the organisations.

For anyone who wants the numbers behind the closure, the announcement of the final ride and the reaction from the beneficiaries sit in the Dallas Voice reporting. The record of the editions, the route, and the weekend itself is what Trinity Miles keeps, and the agencies that received the money still work in Dallas and Fort Worth.

If you rode, crewed, or donated, the three beneficiary agencies still take support directly, and the ride that carried their names for thirteen years lives on in the route it followed.