Participant Profile: Kaila Mintz
“The enthusiasm of the Bike Rally, even in different formats through the pandemic, remains strong. I still feel so connected with the Bike Rally community. It can survive even with the pandemic. People are adaptable and are still coming together to support each other.”
Kaila Mintz has been a Friends for Life Bike Rally Rider since 2017. A long-distance cycling enthusiast and professional HIV/AIDS advocate, Kaila shares her beautiful experiences and memories of the Bike Rally, including some nuggets of fundraising wisdom!
In being asked how she had first gotten involved with the Bike Rally and why she was attracted to the event, Kaila reflected: “I hadn’t heard of the Bike Rally [prior to participating]. I work for an organization called AIDS-Free World, and it’s an NGO more focused on the international scene. One sunny day, I had just finished a long bike ride in Toronto and I was at the Cabbagetown Festival in September 2016, and bumped into my friend Josh. He came up to me all excited and said, ‘hey, I just found out there’s this epic multi-day bike ride and it’s for AIDS. It’s totally up your alley!’ Since we both love distance cycling- and new adventures, even though we didn’t know anybody in the community we did it anyway, and we made friends as we went. We picked a team that we thought had a similar energy to us, fundraised together throughout the year, and did the ride to Montreal the following summer. This year will be my fifth year participating!”
Following this, Kaila explained why she believes it is important for her to ride in the Bike Rally year after year, citing organizations like Toronto PWA as much-needed local responses to HIV/AIDS in Canada: “I wanted to become more connected with the local HIV community and response. My work is in service to people living with HIV but as we focus on high-level advocacy, it can be somewhat disconnected from the day-to-day lived reality. I enjoy bringing my sponsors, who are across the country and around the world, along for the ride with me. The Bike Rally family is a wonderful community, which I especially experience and appreciate when we are pushing and helping each other on the road.”
We also had the privilege of speaking with Kaila regarding her years of training for the Bike Rally, as well as her most cherished memories. She laughs as she tells us about one particularly intense- but special- ride from the virtual Bike Rally in August 2020: “After doing two 200km rides, my friend joked that we should do an ‘American Double Century’ challenge. That got into my brain, so we ended up doing it a week later! It was a 330 km ride over one long day, with lots of emergency coffee-and-food stops and flat tires. We rode from Toronto to Niagara-on-the-Lake, to Niagara Falls, and back through Hamilton.” Kaila also recalls what it was like to first start long-distance cycling in Toronto: “I moved to Toronto in 2013, and a lot of my new friends biked around the city, so I joined in. I thought my existing bike was too slow, so I went to Cycle Solutions in Cabbagetown and they suggested a road bike. I said ‘no… I don’t need a road bike!,’ but then the employees said there’s a neighbourhood club I could join, the Cabbagetown Cycling Club, and they convinced me! A few strong women from the club took me in to help me become more comfortable with group rides, and the club leaders were really good at providing encouragement and guidance. I would do shorter rides during the week and then longer ones on the weekend… and a couple years later, I was more than ready to do the Bike Rally.”
When it came to memories of being on the road for the Bike Rally she reminisces with a smile, “There are so many! For example, I like to go fast and get into this groove of all of us pulling together. I have a group cycling background and I love the rush of riding together and feeling connected. I live for those moments.” She goes on to say, “my team also has people who do lots of different sports, so we would ride hard in the morning, quickly pitch our tents at the campsite, and jump into the lake for a swim. I love those post-ride swims with my team, with everyone joking and splashing around after.”
Kaila also remembers the candlelight vigil in particular, sharing that, “[the candlelight vigil] is such a powerful moment for storytelling and connection. Sometimes we have discussions with new friends [from the Bike Rally] who aren’t sure about disclosing their status to the group. It’s an honour and privilege to hold this sensitive, personal information, and the person, too. The vigil is an important reminder there’s still a lot of work to do in the response to HIV and in ending stigma and discrimination.”
As our conversation shifted towards the specifics of training and fundraising, Kaila shared tips for first-year riders, or those who want a leg up in their strategy: “The more time you spend on your bike before the Bike Rally, the better; get out solo, with a team member or friend, and bring people along on your journey [of training and fundraising]. I had a quite a few people who donated more than once last year [during the pandemic]. I didn’t expect it, but being open about the challenges of my training process and fundraising status updates really helped with engagement.”
She goes on to say, “sometimes, fundraising events are really great. For example, I’ve hosted several casual events with my mom’s friends. We would sit around in the backyard and it was mostly a chance for them to eat and chat with my mom, but I would do a little speech, and people would be interested. Holding events in person or virtually can bring in your potential donors, for them to understand your connection to the cause. Make it personal. Explain why you are involved, and ask everyone! I suggest asking everyone you know, not just your inner circle. I was shocked when I did, because some of those people I didn’t consider to be particularly close to me, donated quite a bit of money. By being so earnestly enthusiastic about PWA and the cause, people are happy to support it, and me. The more I opened the circle, it also became a way to reconnect with people, too. Something I always stress is that, ‘it’s okay to donate any amount.’ It’s tough to be the person asking. It’s not easy. It’s also tough to do the physical challenge [of the Ride itself]. People are doing difficult things when they train and fundraise, and others recognize that!”
Reflecting on the last year, with the pandemic, Kaila has this to say about the Bike Rally and her hope for the future: “the enthusiasm of the Bike Rally, even in different formats through the pandemic, remains strong. I still feel connected with the Bike Rally community, even though I’ve been living in Newfoundland since September 2020. The community can survive even the pandemic. People are adaptable and are still coming together to support each other; my sponsors really rallied around me last year, and have been generous so far this year. I am grateful for the solidarity and encouragement.”
*You can support Kaila in the Bike Rally directly through her fundraising URL here: pwaevents.org/KailaRides4PWA