It Takes a Village to Stop HIV

 The Fund-raiser

If you raise a dollar for AIDS causes, you’re doing more than most folks. Bill Shopoff does more than that. The Irvine, Calif., businessman has raised over a quarter-million dollars for HIV services as a cyclist in AIDS/LifeCycle’s Ride to End AIDS.

Every year in the AIDS/LifeCycle, 2,350 bicyclists and 600 volunteer “roadies” complete a seven-day, 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of the world’s most successful AIDS fund-raiser. Over the past decade the event has raised more than $80 million for the HIV/AIDS services of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center and San Francisco AIDS Foundation — and Shopoff has been a big part of that.

Shopoff has completed the journey six times, taking up the cause to honor the many friends he lost to AIDS. Crediting his fund-raising success to personal outreach, especially to those directly affected by the disease, Shopoff says of the LifeCycle, “There’s nothing I’ve done that’s been more rewarding.”

That’s saying a lot considering Shopoff, when he’s not cycling, is president and CEO of Shopoff Group and has more than 25 years of real estate investment experience.