Rather than use summer break to unwind from a long school year, University of Idaho Senior and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity member Jacob Hruska spent his summer leading a group of 27 cyclists across America in a 67-day cross-country bicycle ride.
He and the other participants traveled as a part of The Journey of Hope, an event through the Ability Experience that raises donations and awareness for people with disabilities.
Hruska said he volunteered his summer after learning about the trip at a national Pi Kappa Phi conference.
He worked over 80 days as a support crewmember following the cyclists in a van accompanied by other support vehicles as they rode from San Francisco, CA to Washington, D.C.
Hruska said he was the only UI Pi Kappa Phi member to be a part of the trip.
Jacob Hruska | Courtesy
Members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity stop to perform a bike maintenance check during the Journey of Hope, a 67-day cross-country bike ride.
Although Hruska is the first UI Pi Kappa Phi member to volunteer for the charity, he said the fraternity is linked to the non-profit.”Pi Kappa Phi is pretty new to campus, we”ve only been here three years,” he said, “And this summer was the first time that anyone from the university participated in it and that was me.”
“Pi Kappa Phi nationally owns and operates The Ability Experience,” he said. “The Journey of Hope is entirely made up of members of the fraternity across the country. We are the only fraternity in the country to own and operate our own philanthropy.”
Hruska said he raised just over $3,000 for the event, an amount that exceeds the organization”s $2,500 requirement for crewmembers, by reaching out to friends and family for donations through informative letters about the organization and how they can make a difference in the lives of those with disabilities.
Hruska said in addition to helping raise money for those in need, the journey provided him with an unforgettable experience.
“It turned out to be the best summer of my life,” he said. “Looking back, my favorite part is remembering the people who visited us on their stops, their smiling faces and how happy they were to see us doing what we were doing.”
He said he recognized the impact the charity and The Journey of Hope had on people during a stop in Grand Island, Nebraska.
“In Nebraska, we met some people who have been coming to our visits for the entire 28 years we”ve been doing the ride,” Hruska said. “It was just so cool to see how excited they were to see us there – they had shirts from 10 to 15 years ago that they got from us and just seeing the history and all the impact that we”ve made throughout the years really showed how much of an impact we were making.”
Maddie Marx can be reached at [email protected]