Student pedals for charity in cross-country bike ride

Karen C. Tully Arizona Daily Wildcat Hameed Shaukat, a junior majoring in English literature, will represent the UA chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity in a national cross-country bike ride. Sixty Pi Kappa Phi members from around the country will ride for 21/2 months to raise money for the fraternity's philanthropy group, Push America.

Hameed Shaukat, a junior majoring in English literature and philanthropy chair for the University of Arizona chapter of Pi Kappa Phi, will be the only local representative during a 21/2-month bicycle ride to support Push America, a national philanthropy that helps build playgrounds for handicapped people.

Sixty members of Pi Kappa Phi, from 136 chapters nationwide, will be participating in the ride across America.

After Bruce Rogers rode from Eugene, Ore. to Virginia 10 years ago, the cross-country bicycle ride has continued as a national event for the fraternity.

This year's ride will begin June 8 on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and conclude August 9 in Washington, D.C. The 60-member team will make stops in cities across the country as it rides along the "journey of hope," Shaukat said.

Each day the ride will begin at about 7 a.m. and finish around noon.

Corporations like Saturn and Power Bar will sponsor the riders along the way, providing , food, lodging, and transportation, said Chad Coltrane, director of special events for Push America.

Coltrane said riders will sleep in donated hotel rooms, donated churches or on gymnasium floors each night of the ride.

"In my own opinion, it (the ride) is the hope of creating a better future for people with disabilities," Coltrane said.

The fraternity will donate funds raised through corporate sponsors to the Push America philanthropy at the completion of the bicycle ride. Those funds will be used to purchase the materials needed to build camps across the country specifically designed for disabled people.

"Almost all of the money raised from the bike ride will go to fund handicapped camps," Shaukat said.

"Three members or our chapter went to Dallas a couple of weeks ago to help build one of the camps."

Fraternity members who wanted to participate in the ride had to fulfill certain requirements set forth by the Pi Kappa Phi national office. All participants were required to raise a minimum of $4,000 in pledges for the ride.

"Most of their money comes from family friends, Coltrane said. "The majority of the team members have the most luck with that method."

Shaukat said the group is hoping to raise more than $450,000 - the amount raised by 55 riders last year.

In addition to collecting pledges, each candidate was required to fill out a four-page application and participate in a 45-minute phone interview with the fraternity's national office in Charlotte, N.C.

"It's a high-profile event and we want the best representatives of the fraternity," Coltrane said.

He said approximately 80 undergraduate members of the fraternity applied for a spot on the team, but only 60 were selected to participate.

Aside from the rigorous application process, Coltrane said it also takes a lot of hard work and dedication to participate in the ride.

Shaukat has been training for the ride since the beginning of the semester.

"I think that is says a lot for Hameed. He has done a lot for the chapter and the UA campus," Coltrane said. "It says a lot about him as a person."