600 Individuals Ride to Raise Awareness of Kidney Disease During Three-Day Event

DaVita, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA) and a leading provider of kidney care services, today announced that the seventh annual Tour DaVita – a three-day, 220-mile bike ride to raise awareness and funds for the fight against kidney disease – will kick off on September 15 at the Cherokee Youth Sports Complex in Gaffney, S.C.

“We see Tour DaVita as not only a way to celebrate our teammates and the care they provide patients each day, but also a vehicle to raise awareness of kidney disease and funds for kidney disease programs,” said DaVita Chief Wisdom Officer Steve Priest, director of the event. “The ride continues to grow every year because of our teammates’ and sponsors’ dedication to the fight against kidney disease.”

Tour DaVita 2013 boasts the highest ever rider participation in the history of the event with more than 600 DaVita teammates, dialysis patients, physicians, sponsors, family members and friends of the company taking part. The event has the following itinerary for 2013:

Sept. 15 – Participants will ride 60 miles from Gaffney to Chester
Sept. 16 – Participants will choose either an 80- or 100-mile route from Chester to Fountain Inn
Sept. 17 – Participants will ride 60 miles from Fountain Inn to Seneca

Along the way, riders will pass through Brattonsville and McConnells on day one; Lockhart, Buffalo, West Springs and Enoree on day two; and Piedmont, Golden Grove, Pelzer and Pendleton on day three.

To participate in Tour DaVita, riders each raise a minimum of $750 to $2,000 in donations and pay their own travel expenses. Their individual fundraising combined with donations from DaVita and other corporate sponsorship is expected to contribute more than $700,000 to The Kidney TRUST™, a 501(c)(3) independent nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the progression of chronic kidney disease through no-cost, rapid screening in non-medical settings.

More than 100 Tour DaVita participants have signed up to have their kidneys screened at no cost by The Kidney TRUST during this year’s event.

Tour DaVita, which is organized by Backroads, the “world’s #1 active travel company™”, has previously taken place in Tennessee/Alabama (2007), Wisconsin (2008), Michigan (2009), Washington State (2010), Connecticut/New York/Massachusetts (2011) and Iowa (2012).

To date, Tour DaVita has helped raise more than $4 million for nonprofits dedicated to raising awareness for kidney disease and expanding access to dialysis care in developing countries. Participants have collectively ridden more than 433,000 miles over the six years the ride has taken place, challenging themselves and their fellow riders to go as far as possible.

Corporate sponsors for this year’s Tour DaVita include Amgen, ASD Healthcare, Baxter International Inc., Golden Construction Development Company, Inc. and NxStage Medical, Inc.

For more information about the seventh annual Tour DaVita, please visit tourdavita.org. For more information about The Kidney TRUST, please visit kidneytrust.org. For more information on Backroads, please visit backroads.com.

DaVita and Tour DaVita are registered trademarks of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Logo courtesy DaVita