They hail from colleges and universities across the country, but the approximately 50 men of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity partaking in the annual “Journey of Hope” bike ride from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. in conjunction with The Ability Experience are happy to come together to make a difference for people with disabilities across the country.
They arrived in Marshalltown on Monday afternoon and spent the night at the Hampton Inn after visiting the Veterans Memorial Coliseum and eating lunch with the participants in a summer camp for children with autism sponsored by ARC of Marshall County and the Marshalltown Parks and Recreation Department. All of the riders are college students or recent graduates, like Iowa State University alum Bryan Schuetz, who will soon start a job with Procter & Gamble in Cedar Rapids.
“Everybody’s probably got a different story of how they became connected with and decided to join the Journey of Hope team, but I think, as a whole, it’s just everybody becoming exposed to what The Ability Experience does throughout college with our own chapters at our local organizations,” Schuetz said. “For me, we service a lot of the Des Moines area, and we get to work with the ARC of Ames. Being able to work with them kind of exposed me to what kind of an impact you can have working with The Ability Experience, and being able to do Journey of Hope was just a no brainer. It’s such a unique opportunity to see the country and make an impact as you go, and it’s just something that I definitely wanted to get involved with before I left college officially and started my career.”
Another rider, Cameron Geranios, hails from the ride’s origin point, the Bay Area, and recently graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in journalism. He said his fraternity chapter wasn’t as involved in philanthropy efforts as he would’ve liked to be for their first three years, but they “stepped it up” over the last year. Last summer, he worked for The Ability Experience as a public relations, media relations and intern.
“I got a lot of exposure to the Journey of Hope team, and I just felt like I was missing out on all the fun. So I signed up to do it this year and have not looked back since. I couldn’t be more excited to be out here cycling,” he said.
