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.

Gabriel Sierra, a Fort Lauderdale native who is studying finance at Florida International University (FIU), said his passion for helping the disability community grew out of living with a deaf cousin for three years.

“I kind of realized (that) I wanted to break any preconceptions I had in relation to other people with disabilities, and I just wanted to open my eyes up a little bit more (and) learn to be more accepting and loving of everyone I can,” he said.

The trip encompasses a total of 4,000 miles over two months and includes stops in larger cities like Salt Lake City, Denver, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Pittsburgh along with smaller ones such as Marshalltown. Each rider is tasked with raising at least $6,000 to cover the expenses associated with the journey but also helping to provide grants for local disability organizations in the communities they travel through along the way as well as Ability Experience challenge events and the Ability Camp program, which renovates summer camps to make them more inclusive.

“Obviously, in person, we’re able to meet with these organizations, and we’ll get to do activities with people with disabilities. We’ll get to hang out and share a meal, share an experience, meet with them and hopefully make their day a little bit brighter. And there are some portions where we do some service projects for organizations, so we’ll be able to help them out with some of their needs that can’t get met with their current staffing,” Schuetz said.

After heading back to the Coliseum for another meet-up at 5 p.m., the riders returned to the Hampton Inn before heading east to Cedar Rapids on Tuesday. One thing Schuetz, Geranios and Sierra could all agree on was that the experience had already changed their lives.

“For me at least, I’ve really noticed (that) I’ve become a lot more outgoing. It’s a lot easier to talk to everyone,” Sierra said. “I really like seeing people smile. I love receiving smiles at all the friendship visits we go to. I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve taken away from this.”

For Geranios, who plans to return to his home state to pursue a master’s degree in communications at San Diego State University, it’s the activities the group performs off of their bikes that matter more than the ride itself — for example, a kid at the camp in Marshalltown on Monday ran up to him and gave him a hug, telling him he wanted to be just like Geranios when he gets older.

“That’s very meaningful, and we see stuff like that all the time. We get to see kind of where our fundraising is going, and we get to share that with the world. And I think that’s very impactful,” he said.

And finally, for Schuetz, it symbolizes a period of transformation as he prepares to enter the workforce.

“It’s been a surreal experience. These guys explained it very well. It’s just been absolutely surreal. It’s given me a lot of perspective on life, which is really awesome, and the chance to make an impact of this magnitude is really amazing, especially for me because I get to go back when this is all over and start my job. So this is a really special thing for me,” he said.

To learn more about the ride, visit https://www.abilityexperience.org/journey-of-hope/.