On July 27, 2014, more than 300 people will embark on a six-day, 600 km journey from Toronto to Montreal. Riders of all ages and levels of experience and crew supporting a variety of activities along the route will unite in their passion to support people living with HIV/AIDS. The Friends For Life Bike Rally is an extraordinary personal, life-changing, and challenging experience.
Joe Kuzma, Manager of Microbiology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is volunteering at this year’s event and spoke with us about his role at the event and his involvement with the rally.
“I have heard many good things about what the People with AIDS (PWA) foundation does to support the Toronto HIV positive community and have always wanted to participate in the Bike Rally in some form or another,” explains Joe.
Thousands of people have participated over the years – each has stories to share, many have developed lasting friendships and all have made lasting contributions. The Bike Rally is the People with AIDS (PWA) foundation’s signature event – critical to the agency’s ability to provide services to Toronto’s HIV positive community. In the past 15 years the Bike Rally has raised over $11 million for PWA!
“A very good friend of mine, Dr Craig Jacobs is an Assistant Professor and Supervising Clinician in the Division of Clinical Education at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) and this will be the second year that CMCC will be sending a team of chiropractic interns under the supervision of Dr Craig Jacobs to provide Chiropractic care for rider’s and crew’s musculoskeletal injuries that may occur during the challenging 600 km journey,” says Joe. “I asked Dr Jacobs if there was anything that I could to be part of the rally and help in any way by volunteering my time. So, I have volunteered to be part of the wellness team that supports the crew and riders.”
Joe has never participated in this event before and while he won’t be one of the bike riders, he is excited to be part of the volunteer team that will help make sure the event runs smoothly and has been assigned to be the scheduler for the therapies including Chiropractic care, massage and other therapies.
Part of Joe’s role in the wellness teams means working with the training rides that the riders have been doing in order to prepare for the 600km journey over the past few months. The wellness team has been there participating in outreach and educational programs for the riders during these training sessions to aid in the reduction of injuries during the actual ride as well as educational and training programs for crew members in proper lifting techniques and other procedures.
Anyone interested in helping out the PWA and supporting the Friends for Life Bike Rally can visit Joe’s fundraising page HERE.
The Pathology Report 
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