Cyclist 'Burns' Rubber for Good Cause
5/30/2001
By Jana F. Brown
 Dressed in colorful spandex, a helmet atop her head, Margo Burns cruises
down Dunbarton Road on her 2001 Cannondale R1000 Triple bicycle. She owns a car but,
incredibly for the rest of the motorized world, she has opted to pedal the 20 miles
to Concord from her home in Manchester, knowing that she must travel the reverse
route at the end of the day.
For Burns, today is just another day in her now familiar routine of pedaling furiously
whenever she has a chance. She knows that frequent 40-mile journeys will seem like
a piece of cake come July 19 when she begins a 325-mile cycling stint between Bear
Mountain, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts. The four-day ride has more of a purpose
than getting the 43-year-old Burns in rock-solid shape. Along with 3,100 other cyclists
that week, Burns will take part in Tanqueray's Northeast AIDSRide, which raises money
for AIDS research and patient services.
Although she hadn't been on a bike since her teenage years, Burns was moved by
what she learned about the disease at an AIDSRide exposition in February. Despite
her lack of bike-riding conditioning and her fear of fundraising, Burns jumped at
the chance to make her contribution to fighting the horrible epidemic. On 6 May,
three months after committing to the New York-to-Boston Ride, Burns passed her first
test, completing a century ride in the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure
out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In that road test, during which Burns actually
pedaled an extra 13 miles due to a missed turn, she learned that she could withstand
a grueling day perched on the seat of her bike.
"You wouldn't have found a bigger couch potato in December," admits
Burns, who runs the St. Paul's School Language Center. "But I sit here at my
desk every day and look out at the students and do the math. None of them have lived
in a world without AIDS, and they never will."
The winding AIDSRide route will take participants through four States between
19 and 22 July. Starting in Bear Mountain, New York, the riders traverse through
New Haven (82 miles) and Preston (87 miles), Connecticut, to Cumberland, Rhode Island
(100-plus miles), and on to Boston. In order to participate, riders must first raise
a minimum of $2,100. Even though Burns had not spent more than a few minutes on a
two-wheeler since the age of 15, she reveals that the thought of raising more than
$2,000 scared her more than the prospect of an interstate bike journey.
 "At first I thought the bicycling would be the hard part. Fundraising
terrified me. But I learned how to make the face-to-face appeal and the money started
pouring in." As of 29 May, Burns' Website, ogram.org (it's Margo spelled backwards),
reports that she has raised $2,890, more than half of her personal goal of $5,000.
The Internet site also details her training log, her cycling equipment, the spread
of the disease, and the missions of the Ride's three main beneficiaries: Lesbian
& Gay Community Services Center, Fenway Community Health, and The Michael Callen-Audre
Lorde Community Health Center. The three health hubs provide a variety of services
to HIV/AIDS patients ranging from prevention to research to testing to counseling.
In her quest to raise money for the AIDSRide, Burns has been touched by the generosity
of the human spirit. She recently received word of one contribution and was initially
at a loss as to the donor's identity. After rummaging through her brain for the answer,
it occurred to Burns that the funds had come from an elderly couple with whom she
had struck up a random conversation at a St. Patrick's Day Parade weeks earlier.
That particular duo cited a nephew who suffered from AIDS as its specific motivation
for the contribution. When queried about her own motivation, Burns speaks of friends
who have succumbed to the disease, and of an acute awareness of the worldwide suffering
caused by AIDS and the HIV virus.
"It's only money and they need it. I have become so sensitized to the pandemic
of AIDS that it brings me to tears to even talk about it," she says, dabbing
at the corners of her eyes with an index finger. "What's happening is horrific
and you do whatever you can to help. This is my contribution."
Burns specifically touts the generosity of the St. Paul's School community, whose
members have enthusiastically supported her fundraising efforts. "They have
been extra-generous," she says. The School's Gay/Straight Alliance plans to
sponsor Burns with a yet unspecified amount. Some of the proceeds from the SPS Master
Players performance of The Good Doctor (where the GSA sold refreshments) have
been set aside for the grateful Burns.
"When I have completed this Ride, I am sure I will be stunned to have done
something so big. This has tapped into a philanthropic vein I didn't know I had,"
she says.
Those still wishing to make a contribution to Burns' effort on behalf of Tanqueray's
Northeast AIDSRide, can do so by check or by credit card at the ogram.org
Web Site.
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