Bicycle ride from Fairbanks to Anchorage helps raise money for the development of an anti-AIDS vaccine.
By: Michael Redmond
When the issue becomes one of dealing with life’s inevitable passages, Dr. Norbert A. Wetzel, a psychologist, practices what he therapizes.
In late August, Dr. Wetzel, 65, completed a six-day, 500-mile bicycle ride from Fairbanks to Anchorage, Alaska. He was one of a company of 1,148 cyclists who made the trip through wilderness and tundra, sleeping in tent cities en route, to help raise funds for the development of an anti-AIDS vaccine.
"There were probably no more than 30 bikers over age 60 but I must say I met a 74-year-old. The majority of bikers was between 25 and 40. They rarely patronized or condescended to those of us who were, well, beyond their demographic," Dr. Wetzel smiled. "On the contrary, they treated us mostly with admiration and collegiality."
A specialist in family therapy and couple therapy with The Princeton Family Institute, Dr. Wetzel (he asks to be called by his first name) took up biking a few years ago as part of a normal health regime.
"I grew up in Germany. After the war, as a 14-year-old, I cycled two summers across the Alps from Stuttgart to Italy. These are wonderful memories. When I accepted the need to do regular exercise, I remembered the early times, the excitement of those trips. And I found gym and running much less interesting."
So Dr. Wetzel took up biking. He likes to bike along "the canal into Hopewell, to go into Somerset and Hunterdon counties, where it’s nice and hilly."
His motivation to do the Alaska ride was two-fold, he admitted.
"The AIDS ride was an attempt to wrestle with the age issue, no question about it. It was a way to prove to myself that yes, I can still still do that," he laughed.
Only after some prompting did Dr. Wetzel reveal that he was "neither among the fastest nor the slowest. I finished in the middle range. It was a ride, not a race." True, but in such a venture, the middle is an admirable range for a man of Dr. Wetzel’s age.
And then there was the larger cause.
"Here at the institute we have a family intervention and empowerment program, financed through the (New Jersey) Department of Human Services. We train, supervise and consult for family support in Camden, Lakewood, Irvington and Elizabeth, and there we encounter families affected by AIDS kids with parents or a relative who have died of AIDS," he said.
Founded in 1992, Pallotta TeamWorks Inc. creates and produces action events exclusively for social-welfare causes, such as the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride in which Dr. Wetzel participated. So far, Pallotta TeamWorks has targeted AIDS and breast cancer, but issues such as domestic poverty and suicide prevention are also in the picture.
A for-profit enterprise, Pallotta TeamWorks claims to have contributed $153 million since the company’s inception "more money, sent more quickly to AIDS and breast cancer charities than any known private-event enterprise in U.S. history," according to its Web site.
Dr. Wetzel described the Alaska ride as "very well organized and supported. The organization moved a tent city from one location to the next. We had hot showers and warm meals all we had to do was put up our tents. Every 15 miles on the road there was a base for refreshment and repairs. In the evenings, there would be entertainment, also scientific reports by AIDS researchers. During at talent show one night, a biker sang an aria from Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro.’ "
To participate, each biker needed to raise $3,400 in sponsorship monies. "Through my colleagues in the New Jersey Psychological Association, I collected $5,300," said Dr. Wetzel, who expressed particular gratitude to Kopp’s Cycle in Princeton for its support.
Behind the scenes, there was another special donor.
"My wife Hinda Winawer (also a therapist at the Princeton Family Institute) bought me a wonderful bike, a Lifespeed Arenberg," he said. The couple has two children, Sarah and Andreas.
Now Dr. Wetzel is back home with imperishable memories.
"Alaska is an entirely different world. We rode through wilderness areas, untouched by anything except for the road. We rode through tundra, close to glaciers. So beautiful a landscape, just vast and very challenging."
Pallotta Teamworks Inc. is headquartered at 1525 Crossroads of the World, Los Angeles, Calif. 90028. The company can be reached at (323) 467-8888 and through its Web site, www.pallottateamworks.com.
The Princeton Family Institute is located at 166 Bunn Drive in Princeton, (609) 921-2551.