Joe Ressler
This upcoming summer, the boys will be participating in Journey of Hope, an event held annually by Pi Kappa Phi philanthropic organization The Ability Experience. 100 brothers from chapters across the country have been divided up into groups of roughly 30 people. Newell will be starting with a crew in Seattle and Sciandra in San Francisco. Both of their journeys will cover about 3,600 miles – an average of about 80 miles per day – and take over 2 months to complete.
“For me, I have been in Pi Kappa Phi since 2012,” said Newell. “This is my final coup de grace, both in the fraternity and as an undergraduate.”
Sciandra nodded his head in an agreement. “Service was one of the reasons I joined the fraternity,” he added, “and Journey of Hope always sounded like something I wanted to do. I’ve been biking forever. The real clincher was when I went to see the [Journey of Hope participants’] arrival in Washington D.C. my freshman year. Ever since then, I knew.”
The same sentiment did not apply to Newell.
“At first, I was not really sure if I should. I didn’t even own a road bike,” he added. “But honestly, you just have to take things for what you want, not what you have.”
Now the guys are both fully committed to ride this summer. While their journeys do not start until the first week of June, Newell and Sciandra have been diligently preparing for the big day.
“In order to go on the trip, you need to raise $5,500 bare minimum,” explained Newell. “All proceeds for the Journey of Hope, which is usually about $600,000, goes to support people with disabilities. We’ve been doing a whole lot of knocking on doors for fundraising.”