The singer recently teamed up with charitable contesting site Omaze to offer an opportunity for two people to travel to New York and go on a bicycle tour of Central Park with him, complete with ice cream at the end of the ride. What, he's risking brain freeze too?
Guaranteed prizes from t-shirts to handwritten lyrics of your choice are also offered, depending on the size of the monetary donation. But the grand prize draw is this bike tour, which if you know anything about Bono and bikes, might make you nervous and excited at the same time.
Cycling with Bono is no joke. In fact, it might border on dangerous. In November 2014 the singer was involved in a cycling accident in New York that left him with a fractured orbital bone, three separate fractures of his left shoulder blade, a left humerus bone that was fractured in six places and a fractured left pinky.
Bono showed remarkable self-awareness in a promotional video he made for the contest.
"Life knocks us down, we get back up," says the singer immediately after the video shows a series of headlines news organizations wrote about his bicycle crash. ""Forget about jumping out of a plane, scaling Mount Everest, join me and really live on the edge. We'll ride, we'll laugh, we'll snap a few selfies, talk about our favourite albums, geo-politics, and I'll tell you what it's like to suffer a facial fracture involving the orbit of your eye and having your elbow redone in titanium. And enduring the torture of 18 months of physical therapy with a Satanic German physio. Good times."
If the write-up for the contest is any indication, the risk is something Omaze are (playfully) aware of.
"Bono is bringing you and a friend to New York City to REALLY live on the edge. You’ll meet him for a morning of stories and signed merchandise before embarking on a lovely bike ride through one of the most iconic places in the world. After that (provided you all survive), Bono has one more stop to help you cool off that recent rush of adrenaline: ice cream. We’ll provide your flights and 4-star hotel; Bono will provide the motorcycle helmets."
Will having a laugh about Bono's broken bones is all well and good, the Omaze site was also quick to point out the seriousness of (RED)'s cause.
"In 2002, more than 1,500 babies were born every day with HIV. Today that number is just over 600. We must act now to get that close to zero," said a message on the site. "With urgency and action, it’s possible for the world to end the transmission of HIV from moms to their babies. We can deliver the first AIDS FREE GENERATION in over 30 years. (RED) can’t accomplish this alone. It will take all of us to get there – governments, health organizations, companies, and you. BE (RED). Start the end of AIDS now."
When you donate to (RED) through Omaze you earn a certain number of ballots towards winning the Bono bicycling package. Larger the donations also earn bonus rewards as well as more chances to win the grand prize. For example, a $10 donation gets you 100 entries into the Bono bicycling trip; a $100 donation gets you 1,000 entries as well as a (RED) t-shirt; $50,000 gets you an autographed guitar and 500,000 entries and a big spender with $75,000 gets a meet & greet with Bono, VIP concert tickets, handwritten song lyrics and 750,000 chances to win.
Deadline to donate/enter to win is Jan. 21, 2016 and the winner will be announced on or around Feb. 2, 2016.
Watch Bono talking about this cycling opportunity:
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