The Ability Experience<\/a>, is a cross-country cycling event that raises awareness and support for people with disabilities.<\/p>\nThe group of cyclists and crew members is one part of the two Journey of Hope teams riding different routes across the country, totaling 4,000 miles altogether.<\/p>\n
The group had a sponsored lunch at Happy Joe\u2019s Pizza & Jungle Bungle and finished the day with a dinner and \u201cfriendship visit\u201d at the Annie Wittenmyer Aquatic Center on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Along the way, cyclists engage in what they call Friendship Visits, giving team members time to build relationships with the very individuals they are riding to support. <\/p>\n
These visits include activities such as dances, games, and advocacy events, providing cyclists and the disability community with enriching, memorable experiences.<\/p>\n
For Siddharth Nanjangud, Public Relations Crew Member, it is important for them to make sure those with disabilities are seen, heard and supported.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single biker has at least one personal moment that they\u2019ve had with either someone with disabilities, or somebody they know has a disability, or somebody that they just want to dedicate this trip to,\u201d Nanjangud said.<\/p>\n
For cyclist Ethan Vesely, the months of training, fundraising and outreach are more than worth it in the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really rewarding and positive just seeing all of the hard work that went into preparing, and just seeing it all pay off a million times more than what I would\u2019ve expected through the friendships, visits, and the impact that we\u2019re able to make at each one with all the individuals involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it is partly a physical challenge for the group of cyclists, Charlie Taft says it\u2019s the faces of the lives touched and the views along the way that he loves the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the perfect mix, I\u2019d say, of challenging and rewarding. The challenging part is obviously biking early in the morning … being away from family \u2014 all that stuff is really difficult,” he said. \u201cBut then I see the looks on people\u2019s faces at the friendship visits. Seeing some of the most incredible views ever. That\u2019s definitely the rewarding part,\u201d Taft said.<\/p>\n
Combined with corporate sponsorships, the 2025 Journey of Hope teams will raise more than $450,000 for people with disabilities across the nation.<\/p>\n
To learn more about the ride, visit Journey of Hope<\/a>.<\/p>\nCopyright 2025 KWQC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – Thirty-one fraternity members from colleges and universities across the country joined together for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,5060,1425,5061,884,44,5059,5063,82,5062],"class_list":["post-4250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-davenport","tag-iowa","tag-journey-of-hope","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pi-kappa-phi-fraternity","tag-quad-cities","tag-sports","tag-the-ability-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}