"Harbor to the Bay" takes off

Right now, nearly 250 cyclists are training for the annual Harbor to the Bay HIV/AIDS benefit bike ride, a 128-mile journey from Boston to Provincetown on Sept. 15 aimed at raising money and awareness to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Among them is Krzysztof Krakowiak, a Roslindale man who will be participating in his very first benefit bike ride this year. Krakowiak, 49, has been HIV positive for 23 years. "Obviously it hasn't been a bed of roses. It's been a struggle here and there. I just wanted to do [the ride] because I figured if I don't do it now, I might never do it again." It's not that Krakowiak, a native of Poland, is pessimistic about his future, he quickly clarified, "but I felt that I was in good shape enough to do it."

Though he has been a casual bike rider for most of his life, it wasn't until last spring that Krakowiak began biking more intensely, having joined Positive Pedalers, a group of cyclists who are living with HIV/AIDS. "I really just became so consumed by it," said Krakowiak, an accountant. "It is addictive. It really is," he laughed. "You become so aware of your body and all your senses just become so heightened." On top of that, he added, "and it's healthy and it's good for you, you know."

Krakowiak is participating in "H2B," as the ride is known, on behalf of AIDS Action Committee (AAC), the newest of the ride's beneficiary organizations. In past years, proceeds of the ride were divvied up between the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, Fenway Community Health Center and Community Research Initiative of New England. AAC was added to the list after it decided to discontinue its own Red Ribbon Ride after last year due to low participation and merged its resources with H2B. By joining forces with AAC, said H2B Director Jim Morgrage, "we've really picked up a huge influx of new participants."

Now in its fifth year, organizers of H2B anticipate that this year's trek will be the most lucrative to date. With increased ridership, Morgrage said H2B is on track to raise $300,000. By contrast, last year's ride drew 158 cyclists who raised $238,000. With no paid staff members and a grass-roots approach to producing the event, H2B promises that 100 percent of rider-received pledges goes to the beneficiary organizations.

Morgrage said the no-frills attitude of the ride is what makes it unique among the plethora of similar charity fundraisers. "Sometimes we sit around the table as members of the [organizing] committee and say how is it that we continue to grow and we continue to raise more each year?" he said. "The only thing I can tell you is, I think it's the model which we've done at Harbor to the Bay and that is it's a word-of-mouth type thing. We don't have a big advertising budget." Rather, volunteers and riders recruit their friends to get involved in the event and interest spreads on its own. "Of course you do it because you believe in the cause," said Morgrage, who will be among the cyclists this year, as he has been in the four previous. "But I think that they choose Harbor to the Bay because there's no elaborate productions, there's no paid staff and I think most of them do it because they see that it's a grassroots thing, it's all volunteer." Morgrage notes the beneficiary organizations help the recruiting effort as well, not only by organizing groups of riders, but through their longstanding reputations for providing quality services to the community. "We're really working with four great organizations in the Boston area that have a long and distinguished track record of providing the right kind of services to the right people," said Morgrage.

H2B riders have the option of starting in Boston and riding as far as their legs can take them, pedaling all the way to Provincetown or doing a Bourne-to-Provincetown jaunt. H2B will coordinate transportation from the Sagamore Bridge to Provincetown for cyclists who need it.

Krakowiak wants to go the distance. Toward that end he's been regularly logging 50-60 mile training rides back-to-back with a short a break in between. "People tell me that if I can do 50-60 mile rides back-to-back that I should be okay with doing 130 [miles]. So I want to believe them," he laughed. "And if I feel like I'm dying in the middle of it, there's always the Sagamore Bridge." That option is "less appealing," Krakowiak added.

He said he looks forward to the sense of accomplishment that will come from completing the ride. "Obviously we all could [just] write a check. But obviously you're combining a personal challenge with raising money and I think it makes it that much more meaningful," said Krakowiak, who aims to raise $1000 for the cause. "It is a tremendous sense of accomplishment." He emailed his fundraising appeal to friends across the country earlier this week and has already been overwhelmed by some of the responses. "I tell you, I choked [up] a couple of times reading those emails and the messages and the donations that started to come in. ... I don't know how to say it, it just felt terrific," said Krakowiak. "I have wonderful friends."

For more information on riding or volunteering for Harbor to the Bay, call 877-422-2453, email [email protected] or visit www.harbortothebay.org