Amazing Race Winner Chip Arndt Launches
Amazing Race Winner Chip Arndt Launches
$100,000 HIV/AIDS Fundraising Campaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Michael Bedwell
415.321.0142
Miami, Florida (March 5, 2007)Chip Arndt, President of Miamis Freedom Democrats and co-winner of CBS TVs The Amazing Race 4, launched an ambitious challenge to raise $100,000 for nine HIV/AIDS service organizations in Florida, Washington DC, and New York City, areas currently hardest hit by the pandemic. Chips Personal Response to AIDS Across America (CPR to AAA) will include two AIDS Rides and two AIDS Walks in 2007 during which he will cover over 425 miles.
The benefiting not-for-profit organizations are: the LGBT Community Center in New York City, the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, DC, and the following organizations in Florida: the Hug Me Program at The Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families in Orlando; Trinities Charities in Sarasota; the Compass Community Center in West Palm Beach, Broward House in Ft. Lauderdale, Care Resource in Miami, South Beach AIDS Project in Miami Beach, and AIDS Help in Key West.
Says Arndt: Its simple, do the math. According to the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), there are at least 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States . The number of women living with HIV has tripled in the last two decades. At least half of all new infections are among people under the age of 25. While Congress renewed the Ryan White CARE Act until 2009, it doesnt provide near the amount of money organizations serving this growing number of men, women, and children need. This is not about politics; people simply need our help and compassion.
The unique aspect of Arndts $100,000 challenge is that he leverages the power of social networking websites and those who love them: The ability of social networking sites to bring people together, inform, and entertain is awesome. Im not reinventing the wheel, Im just modernizing it. While some say my goal is ambitious, I remind them that nothing comes easy. My efforts are nothing compared to the challenges people living with HIV/AIDS face everyday. Ive raised money before using traditional methods, but using social networking sites is a fun and practical way to quickly spread the word and invite participation. All those people who might not be able to get on a bike or personally participate in an AIDS walk can still contribute to this cause. In fact, the myspace page was built with the help of a college freshman at Boston University , Alex Baillargeon, who wanted to help. So anybody can be a part of CPR to AAA, just go to www.myspace.com and search for Chip Arndt. Bring your friends, too!
Best known for winning The Amazing Race 4 with former partner Reichen Lehmkuhl, Arndts passion to help others began in grade school collecting for UNICEF, continued while he was attending Yale, and first included HIV/AIDS fundraising while working on Wall Street in the 1990s. To date, he has ridden in six AIDS Rides, run two AIDS marathons and five half marathons, and completed three AIDS Walks, including one he helped organize in 2005 as Marketing and PR Manager for Miamis Care Resource.
Arndt works to raise money for numerous other causes in which he believes including the Point Foundation, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, and the PS I Love You Foundation. Express Gay News named him Best Local Male Hero for using his fame and good fortune to help others.
As EVP & Director of Business Development for Merchant Advantage, a Miami-based eCommerce software company he cofounded, Arndt is also the PR Director for GLSEN South Florida, and incoming President of the South Florida chapter of Harvard LGBT alumni.
Further information regarding CPR to AAA can be found at www.myspace.com/chiparndt
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Richard Burns, Executive Director of New York Citys Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center; actor Alan Cumming, celebrity cohost; and Chip Arndt, celebrity rider and cohost, at the finish of Arndts fifth AIDS Ride, Braking the Cycle 3, benefiting The Center.
Chip Arndts $100,000 CPR to AAA (Chips Personal Response to AIDS Across America) 2007 Challenge begins at www.myspace.com/chiparndt
Chip Arndt speaking at the finish of the SMART Ride, from Miami to Key West , benefiting 6 HIV/AIDS not-for-profit organizations in Florida .
Sent from the offices of Chip Arndt
Chip Arndt | MerchantAdvantage
EVP | Director of Business Development
10800 Biscayne Blvd. Penthouse, Miami, FL 33161
ph: 305.895.9466 X 113 | fax: 305.895.9475
EVP | Director of Business Development
10800 Biscayne Blvd. Penthouse, Miami, FL 33161
ph: 305.895.9466 X 113 | fax: 305.895.9475
