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| Photo provided
Surya and Giri Markarla are bicycling from Toronto to Mexico City for the 17th International AIDS Conference in August to raise AIDS/HIV awareness. |
Canadians hope to send message in bike ride
By ERIC WALKER
Editor
An almost 3,000 mile bike ride and a message to raise awareness about AIDS/HIV epidemics around the world is expected to cruise through Murray.
The endeavor is being undertaken by Surya and Giri Markarla, who are biking from Toronto, Canada, to Mexico City, Mexico, which is the site of the 17th International AIDS Conference. Their trip began June 7 and is expected to wrap up in time for the conference Aug. 3.
Speaking by cell phone Wednesday, Surya Markarla said they were in Elizabethtown, Ky., and were traveling west on U.S. 62. The riders were then scheduled to head south from Nortonville, Ky., to Hopkinsville and then onto U.S. 68/Ky. 80 toward Cadiz and through Land Between the Lakes and into Marshall County and Calloway County.
He said from Murray, they plan to head to Memphis, Tenn., and onto Shreveport, La., before heading to Houston and Brownsville, Texas, then across the Mexican border.
Markarla said the idea came from friends who had heard of bikers in Europe who travel across the continent from country to country and simply make stops at taverns, inns and pubs for beer. So if thirsty bikers - or “crazy bikers” as Markarla calls them - can cross numerous countries, they thought why not ride for a cause?
A native of India and the director of BCare, an HIV/AIDS support organization based in Niagara Falls, Ont., Markarla said the ride between Toronto and Mexico City is to be a symbolic link between pledges made during the Toronto World AIDS Conference in 2006 and the upcoming conference in August.
“This struggle indeed goes beyond HIV/AIDS to encompass the lack of urgency on the part of (non-government organizations) and governmental bodies that make outrageous pledges, but face zero accountability for the funds they raise,” their goal states on their site (www.aidsride2008.org).
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Story created Jun 26, 2008 - 11:15:32 EDT.
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