{"id":4588,"date":"2011-05-06T08:42:49","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T12:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=4588"},"modified":"2011-05-06T08:45:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-06T12:45:18","slug":"cross-country-construction-on-two-wheels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2011\/05\/06\/cross-country-construction-on-two-wheels\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-country construction on two wheels"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Hurley and Pennington will ride from Portland, Maine to Santa Barbara, Calif., working at 12 build sites along the way, two of them in Ohio\u2014one in Columbus and one in Yellow Springs.<\/p><\/div>\n

Wright State University students Chrissy Hurley and Corey Pennington are taking a unique road trip this summer. After graduation, the two plan to bicycle across America with an organization called Bike and Build, stretching their muscles on home construction sites in partnership with affordable housing groups like Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together.<\/p>\n

Hurley and Pennington will ride from Portland, Maine to Santa Barbara, Calif., working at 12 build sites along the way, two of them in Ohio\u2014one in Columbus and one in Yellow Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great way to spend the summer after graduating,\u201d says Pennington.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not just taking the summer off to go biking,\u201d adds Hurley. You\u2019re also helping people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurley and Pennington are keenly aware of the need for affordable housing in their own hometowns as well as the Dayton area, and are eager to help across the nation. Hurley has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Tiffin, Ohio. Pennington, who is from New Richmond, southeast of Cincinnati, saw Habitat for Humanity help rebuild his town after the 1987 flood.<\/p>\n

Hurley, a nursing major, participated in a community nursing program. She says that some of the homes she saw in Dayton made it clear to her that there was a need for affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kind of take it for granted,\u201d she says. \u201cDayton, Ohio. Everyone is fine, right? But some of the stuff I saw really puts it in perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they\u2019re not building or biking, participants are still engaged in helping the communities they visit. \u201cWe give bike safety presentations to kids on the road,\u201d says Hurley.<\/p>\n

Every rider is responsible for preparing these presentations, which are offered as community meeting-type seminars in the towns that host the Bike and Build riders each night.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much any day you don\u2019t build a house, you do [presentations] at night,\u201d Pennington says.<\/p>\n

Riders are also responsible for raising $4,000 to defray their own costs (including a brand new road bike) and to fund the grants that Bike and Build donates to affordable housing organizations.<\/p>\n

Of that $4,000, every rider is designated a grant of $500 to give to the affordable housing cause of their choice, and the group as a whole chooses one organization to receive a larger grant.<\/p>\n

The fundraising goals and the schedule might sound grueling\u2014raise $4,000, ride an average of 70 miles a day, build a house a week and remain coherent and cheerful for nightly bike safety presentations. Still, Hurley can\u2019t stop smiling while she talks about it. \u201cI\u2019m just really excited,\u201d she keeps saying.<\/p>\n

Hurley, a nursing major, says she thinks that her experience with Bike and Build will help her once she returns to work at Dayton Children\u2019s Hospital.\u201c A lot of people don\u2019t really think about it, but nursing is a lot of leadership,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to come into a community and you have to assess it. What\u2019s going on, what are their needs, what do they need to learn about?\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of what nursing is too. You\u2019re constantly assessing people. What do they need? What do I need to teach them, so that they can be successful and go home and not come back?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennington, an accounting major, says that he is looking forward to the trip more as an opportunity for personal, rather than professional, growth. \u201cI think we take our simple, daily lives for granted,\u201d he says, and this trip will be a way to help bring attention to the needs of Americans who are less fortunate.<\/p>\n

He also says that biking across the country will be a unique experience he will cherish for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be hard to tell how we\u2019re going to grow now,\u201d he says. \u201cBy the end of the summer, it will change us.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Both Hurley and Pennington are still taking donations and will be until June 18, the kickoff date for the Portland\u2013Santa Barbara ride. For more information, or to make a donation, contact them at pennington.22@wright.edu or hurley.22@wright.edu<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State University students Chrissy Hurley and Corey Pennington are taking a unique road trip this summer. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[729,725,715,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-campus","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4588"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4603,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions\/4603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}