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The Rice Thresher
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by Liora Danan thresher editorial staff Imagine swerving your bicycle off the bike track by the Rice Stadium and cycling until you hit Florida. That's about the same distance Brown College senior Craig Verm cycled last week to raise money for AIDS vaccine research. About 1,100 participants biked seven to eight hours per day to finish the 500-mile ride. The Pallotta TeamWorks AIDS Vaccine Ride began Aug. 20 in Fairbanks, Alaska and ended in Anchorage six days later. Verm has biked on the Brown College Beer-Bike team for the past three years, and he said his training for Beer-Bike helped him during the Alaska ride. Verm also trained in the mountains in Colorado over the summer, but he said the ride was still difficult. Verm has participated twice in the MS150, a ride from Houston to Austin to raise money for multiple sclerosis that a number of Rice students participate in each year. Verm raised over $3,400, the minimum donation for the AIDS ride. He said some participants collected more than $30,000 each. Verm said raising funds, which he obtained mostly from fellow students and family friends, was probably the most difficult part of the event. He said the motto of the ride, "Human Kind: Be Both," summarized the atmosphere at the event. "[The event planners] are trying to change the world through human kindness," Verm said. "It was the nicest experience with humanity I've had in my life. I found coming back this week already in school that having been around 1,500 strangers, I'm reaching out to people already that I normally would never talk to or say hi to." Verm said cyclists in the event would ride up steep hills and then ride back down so they could encourage fellow bikers. Verm, a vocal performance major at the Shepherd School of Music, said at one point a rider pushed another up a hill while Verm sang opera in encouragement. Verm was the only participant from Rice. "I wore my Rice jersey every single day," Verm said. "I was able to wash it every single day, fortunately. I definitely made it known Rice University was there." Other Pallotta TeamWorks AIDS Vaccine Rides are held throughout the year. The next ride, beginning Sept. 5, will cover the 400 miles from Montreal, Canada to Portland, Maine. "I would love to see more Rice students do it as a group," Verm said. "You can form teams, make your own jerseys." More information about the Pallotta rides can be found at www.vaccineride.org.
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