Democratic U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff will participate in the upcoming AIDS/LifeCycle 2025 ride in California, making him the first U.S. senator to take part in the seven-day fundraising bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. 

Organizers of the annual ride, which first started in 2002, earlier announced that 2025 would be the final year of the fundraiser due to rising costs and declining participation.

“You may not know this, but I was the first member of Congress to participate in the ride back in 2014, and now, I’m going to be the first U.S. senator to do the ride in early June,” Schiff told the Bay Area Reporter via email. “In 2014, I did the whole 545-mile ride, but with votes during the week of the ride, this year I will only be able to participate in the first 80-mile leg.”

The AIDS/LifeCycle 2025 hopes to raise a record $17.8 million. Schiff has currently raised nearly $1,500 of his $3,500 goal for the ride.

“I’ll be working throughout the year to support the life-saving services offered by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center,” Schiff explained on his fundraising page for the event. “The services provided as a result of my fundraising efforts include STI and HIV screenings and counseling, linking youth experiencing homelessness and people living with HIV to housing, and many other services that support the LGBTQA+ community. By supporting this cause, you take a stand against stigma and help to save lives, creating a world where health justice is a reality for everyone. These services mean the world to those who receive them, and your support means the world to me.”

Citing rising expenses and dropping participation after the global economic shutdown, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center announced in September that 2025 will be the last year of the event.

“AIDS/LifeCycle has existed as a beacon of strength and hope for people living with HIV and LGBTQ+ communities for more than 30 years,” Tyler TerMeer, CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said in a press release. “As a person living with HIV, participating in this event for 16 years has been life-changing in the best ways–as it has for so many other past and present participants. We have built an incredible community, and supported so much more than an annual bicycle ride–we have made an impact on the HIV epidemic. The work of SFAF and the Center remains as important as ever, and we look forward to working with the AIDS/LifeCycle community to find meaningful ways to continue the Ride’s legacy.”

“We are incredibly proud of the impact the Ride has had on our local communities and the HIV epidemic nationally,” Joe Hollendoner, CEO of the LGBT Center, said in September. “Funds from this event helped change the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic. No longer is HIV the death sentence it was when the ride began thanks to the advancement in treatments, and new cases of HIV are declining thanks to interventions like PrEP. With every mile ridden and every dollar raised, the AIDS/LifeCycle community has brought us closer to the end of AIDS. I could not be more grateful to the AIDS/LifeCycle community for all they have done for the clients served by the Center and SFAF.”