North Texas Daily

Kaleigh Gremaud / Intern Writer

As students walked to the food tent or to the GAB Sept. 29- Oct. 2, they may have seen a tent with two stationary bikes.

This was the UNT Pi Kappa Phi chapter, which just finished a fundraiser for Marathon of Miracles, a national fundraiser that Pi Kappa Phi chapters all over the country do to raise money and awareness for people with disabilities. UNT’s Pi Kappa Phi group has participated for the past 4 years.

“The first year we did 8 hours on the bike, then 12, 24 and it has grown to 3 days of nonstop bike riding, day and night,” fraternity president and converged broadcast media senior Taylor Lindholm said.

The fraternity had two bikes set up on mounts to keep them from moving. For 72 hours, they had a member of the fraternity riding the two bikes.

“We started at noon on Monday and ended at noon today,” member and human resources junior Pat Wood said. “Members took shifts even at 3 a.m.”

The only time the bikes came to a stop was to change the rider. Each rider had a shift to cover.  Wood said that they kept track of the mileage, and the rough total was about 3,400 miles.

Political science sophomore and ability chairman of Pi Kappa Phi Josh Perkins participated in the bike ride with a shift 4.-8 a.m.

“You meet some of the most interesting people at 4 in the morning,” Perkins said. “It also gives a good, true sense of brotherhood. It was a really good experience,”

Pi Kappa Phi has about 55 members, which helped the 72 hour bike ride be a smooth one. The times were flexible, to adjust to everyone’s schedules.

For those who had the 4 a.m., shift there might have been 4 or 5 members at the site. They would ride 1 hour and take a 1 hour nap while another member rode. Lindholm said they haven’t counted how much money was raised yet, but last year, the fraternity raised about $2,400 in one-third of the time.