Bike-riding fraternity brothers are back

Last year, a group of bicycle-riding fraternity brothers pushed through Northeast Ohio to a welcome party in Eastlake.

They did it again this year, thanks to a local family’s dedication to their cause.

The inaugural ride was spearheaded by a Pi Kappa Phi alum named Bruce Rogers in an effort to draw attention to the ride’s parent entity, a Pi Kappa Phi philanthropy organization called The Ability Experience, which was founded in 1977.

Today, the route the participating cyclists take leads them right through Lake County, where Cheri Shade

and her husband Bruce, along with a number of volunteers, host a dinner for the crew at Lake Metroparks Chagrin River Park in Willoughby.

She said her family became involved after her son, a Pi Kappa Phi alum and Bowling Green State University graduate, rode in Gear Up Florida, another Ability Experience event, in 2008.

“Since then, we’ve just become very endeared to the organization and to all the boys,” Cheri Shade said. “It’s just a wonderful organization and everyone involved is just so kind, and committed.”

This year’s participants were just as committed, she said, even though they showed up to a thunderstorm.

The group of 30 cyclists and eight crew members confirmed it thusly:

“The most rewarding part of this event is our friendship visits,” typed Jonathan Michaud, the group’s public relations coordinator. “We ride all day on the bikes. It averages at about 6 hours a day and 75 miles. Our end destination is usually at a facility where we meet with clients or what we call participants. They are always happy to see us and just make the whole ride worth while.”

Michaud added that “The most difficult obstacle on this trip is definitely the amount of time we spend on the road. It’s long days and short nights. However, the people we meet just make it all worth it.”

He noted that the participants had not met each other before they set out.

“I would like to add that we are all college students from across the country,” he said. “None of us knew each other previous to this trip. Essentially, this trip is student-lead, by students all over the country.”

For more information about the trip, visit abilityexperience.org/.

NEWS-HERALD FILE Cyclists participating in the 2016 Journey of Hope crosscountry bicycle ride take a well-deserved break at the Lake Metroparks’ Chagrin River Park in Willoughby last year. The group stopped in Lake County again this year.