Brother Andrew Schneider selected for
the 2009 Journey of Hope Team

Reprint of a Vanguard article about Andrew!


USA student Andrew Schneider to bike across country
By: Devi Sampat
SENIOR REPORTER
Posted: 9/1/08



The Vanguard, Devi Sampat:
What are your plans for the summer of 2009?
Andrew Schneider:
This summer I will be taking a bike trip called the Journey of Hope with about 90 other fraternity brothers (Pi Kappa Phi) from across the nation. The Journey of Hope, which is sponsored by our national philanthropy Push America, is a bike ride from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., in support of people with disabilities. Every day we will stop in a different city and visit an organization that helps people with disabilities. During these visits -- we call them friendship visits -- we will spend time with the people that particular organization helps and write them a check for part of the money that we have raised to help them with their cause. One day we might take autistic kids to a baseball game, and the next day we may play wheelchair basketball; the possibilities are endless.

V: What is Push America?
S: Push America is our fraternity's national philanthropy. It started out in 1977 as PUSH, which stood for "Playground Units for the Severely Handicapped." Then it was changed to "People Understanding the Severely Handicapped." Now, however, we've dropped the acronym and simply call it Push America. Push is all about helping people with disabilities, both through assistance with accessibility, as well as being a public voice about the abilities of anyone with a disability. We believe in people first and the core values of abilities, teamwork, empathy and integrity. I think Push America is very unique in that we, as in Pi Kappa Phi, founded it ourselves. If anyone were to go to our national headquarters, they would find Pi Kappa Phi offices as well as Push America offices in the same building. I believe it really allows Pi Kapps from all over a way to really see and participate in the projects where their fundraising is going, which is exactly what I'm going to be able to do this summer.

V: Why do you want to ride all the way across the country?
S: Many people have asked me this. They think it would be easier just to go visit, spend time with and help people with disabilities here in Mobile, or at least take a car to where I want to go. While this is true, that's not really the point of the ride. With this bike ride, it's more than just visiting people with disabilities and writing a check. First off, it's about the hard work, the blood and sweat put into each day of training for over a year and the sacrifice we make to be the voice for the abilities of so many people who struggle with a disability. They struggle not because of their disability, but because they are not having their voices heard when they try to tell the world of their abilities. We are that voice because we want the world to pay attention to their ability, and we've had an extreme amount of success with letting the bike ride be that voice.
Secondly, the bike ride isn't supposed to be fun all the time. My real job in this ride is to, in a way, bear that burden people with disabilities feel every day on the road; trying to do what I can to say, "I understand, I'm trying to help, let's get the world to see the real you."
Lastly, the ride is about being thankful. I can't imagine how many people would jump at the opportunity to bike across the country. I'm encouraged simply by that to make the best of the trip, as well as my training and fundraising.

V: How much money do you have to raise?
S: I have to raise at least $6,000, but I set my goal at $7,000.

V: What fundraisers have you done and what else can we expect?
S: Well, I'm sure plenty of the students saw the dunking booth in front of the Student Center on Aug. 21. That was a great success. I would be looking for me around the Student Center all this year doing different things. I may be selling some sort of food or riding a stationary bike, just whatever comes to mind. The bulk of my fundraising comes from donations on my Web site by the alumni of our chapter, family and friends.

© Copyright 2008 Vanguard

Find out more at http://www.pushamerica.org.

To donate, visit pushamerica.org, click on "Events," then on "Journey of Hope" and "2009 Roster and Profiles." Also, click on the link to Schneider's personal site.