Jeffrey - let's see how long he keeps smiling!
By Jeffrey Chatman
Days Until JOH: 7
- Number of miles I had cycled before January, 2012: 0
- Last time I played any kind of organized athletic: 7th Grade
- Average number of days in the gym per week: 0.25
- Number of hours in the gym spent playing racquetball: ALL OF THEM
With all of these great statistics^ I’d bet you’re wondering how in the world a sophomore from TCU (Texas Christian University) plans to ride a bicycle from coast to cost. I’m less than a week out from the beginning orientation for a trip called Journey of Hope, and I’m beginning to wonder the same thing. Since March, I’ve put in about 750 miles on the bike and completely outgrown every pair of pants I own in the thigh region in a small attempt to prepare myself for the summer that lies ahead. From what I understand, nothing can truly prepare me for the 60 days of cycling at 80 miles per day that lies ahead, but I hope that my training so far has gotten me where I need to be.
For those of you new to Journey of Hope, here’s the short version:
Journey of Hope is a 4,000 mile bike ride from Long Beach, CA to Washington, DC to raise awareness and money for people with disabilities. All of the riders and crew members are brothers of the same fraternity: Pi Kappa Phi. Journey of Hope is the biggest fundraiser for Pi Kapp’s philanthropy, PUSH America. There are two things that make JOH unique:
1. Pi Kapp is the only fraternity/sorority in the nation to own its own philanthropy. This means that the people in our national office are Pi Kapps, $1.8 million that was raised last year was raised by Pi Kapps, and the service provided on behalf of PUSH is all done by Pi Kapps. Because of these things I’ll be making my journey with 39 of my other brothers. 37 of which are not in my chapter, and I’ve never met before.
2. What happens when get off the bike. JOH is more than just a fundraiser/bike trip; it’s a summer of service. Most days after riding (we average 80 miles a day), we’ll get off the bike and do a Friendship Visit. A friendship visit is where we spend time visit with a group of people who have a disability in whichever community we’re staying in that day. We’ll be learning wide range of disabilities this summer and how the people who have them are no different than you or me. After our friendship visits, we will be able to award grants to the organization we’re visiting from the money we’ve raised for riding.
To learn more about Journey of Hope, please visit: www.tinyurl.com/DonateJOH. I’m very excited to keep everyone updated this summer on my blog, which I’ve partnered with Wheelbrothers.com to help me keep up to date.
Thank you for reading my first installment, and I plan to keep informing you of who am I am the journey that lies before me over the next two months.
-Jeffrey
