Many college students spend their summer working at a day camp, perhaps traveling with their families or perhaps taking additional courses towards their degrees. 25 studuents, mostly from Yale University chose to make the cross country bike trip to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

The bike trip is an annual event called The Habitat Bike Challenge. It is the single largest fund-raiser by a Habitat for Humanity chapter and it benefits the New Haven, Connecticut Habitat for Humanity affiliate. Riders must raise a minimum of $4,000 to go on the trip. This equals approximately one dollar for each mile across the United States. The fund-raiser will pay for the construction of five to six Habitat homes in the New Haven area.

Students travel an average of 70 miles each day with scheduled stops. They have days off and they also do work for Habitat for Humanity along the way. The group enjoys especially traveling through smaller towns and seeing a part of the country that many people do not “specifically” set out to see. “You go through nothingness and cornfields and bale of hay after bale of hay and you pop into these towns,” Wagner said. Andy Wagner, a theater major at Yale University is one of the group leaders for the trip.

Source: Lake Sun Leader