Cyclists pedal through U.S. to help people with disabilities

Friday, Jun. 26, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — On June 7 Mike McBride encountered the toughest challenge he had ever faced: bicycling from Jackson, Calif. to Lake Tahoe, a climb rising 10,000 feet in elevation through the Sierra Nevada mountain range. 

“It was 95 miles uphill, and it was raining and cold,” he said. “It was probably the hardest day of my life so far.”

He faces further challenges as he and his 26 teammates continue to cycle from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. for the Journey of Hope, an annual fundraiser by Pi Kappa Phi to raise money for and awareness of people with disabilities.

The team arrived in Salt Lake City on June 19 and spent the night on the floor of the gymnasium at Christ United Methodist Church. During a taco lunch provided by the church’s men’s group the next day, the team met Travis Carpenter, a 7-year-old who suffers from neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition that has no effective treatments. Travis has had three surgeries in the past year, and has had to learn to walk eight times, said his mother, Kelly Carpenter, during her presentation to the Journey of Hope team.

Kelly Carpenter and her husband, Scott, are active with the Utah chapter of the Children’s Tumor Foundation, which is focuses on neurofibromatosis research; the family belongs to Christ United Methodist Church.

The Carpenters “are a model family,” said Paul Conrad, the men’s group coordinator, so when Scott Carpenter asked them three years ago to host the Journey of Hope team, they agreed and have done so each year since then. 

“This group does fun things every month, but we also want to be a service organization,” Conrad explained. 

Meeting those who benefit from the fundraising is the best part of the Journey of Hope, said McBride and crew member Dennis Martell, two of the several Catholics who are part of the team that came through Utah.

At each stop, team members visit with children who have disabilities, their family members and others who are involved with their care.

McBride recalls one such “friendship visit” in Jackson, Calif., when the cyclists arrived on their bikes, sweating from the 100-degree weather and their 80-mile day’s ride. The crowd of about 200 people was “so happy to see us – you kind of forget about the six hours of riding you just did,” he said. “Everyone just wanted to come shake our hands and talk to us.”

Each Journey of Hope team member is responsible for raising thousands of dollars before participating in the event; both McBride and Martell, a senior at Iona College, joined Pi Kappa Phi because the fraternity places a strong emphasis on charity and community service, they said.

“Being Catholic, everything we do really aligns with my faith – helping the community,” said McBride, a senior at Purdue University who was raised Catholic and has been working with disabled children since he was in middle school.

“It’s a part of our community that gets forgotten and shoved aside,” he said. “It’s easy to just ignore those people, but every time I’ve had the opportunity to interact, I’ve just become friends with members of the disabled community. … They think it’s really cool that we’re cycling across the country.” 

The team cycles 8 to 10 hours a day, which can be difficult both physically and mentally, he said, but “for me it has been extremely rewarding and very enjoyable at times. … I can’t think of a better way to see the country.”

When things get tough, “it helps to have inspiration,” McBride said. “I think about all the people that donated to support this, and all the people I’m riding for, and my faith. That’s what inspires me.”

As a crew member, the travel and lack of sleep are wearing, said Martell, who provides the cyclists with water, ice and equipment repairs and also is charged with uploading daily photos of the team onto Flickr, an online image-sharing site.

During the school year, the Pi Kappa Phi chapter at Iona College does a wide range of community service, from park clean ups to visiting an organization for people with cerebral palsy, Martell said; this volunteering ties in with his faith. 

“I’m just trying to help others – make their days a little bit easier,” said Martell, “If you have the opportunity to help people, you should do your best to do that.”