Playing classic rock throughout McCullough Plaza in near-summer heat and sunshine, the first Taylor Trudeau Cycle for Life — hosted by Pi Kappa Alpha on April 13 — was hard to miss.
A fire truck, dunk tank, tents, tables, stationary bikes, free food and good vibes filled McCullough Plaza and drew in a steady flow of curious students and faculty.
“It took three months to plan, but it’s here today, and it’s awesome,” Brandon Zellers, Pi Kappa Alpha president, said.
The day-long event highlighted a stationary bike marathon to benefit leukemia and lymphoma research.
Pikes on bikes pedaled from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. in the center of McCullough Plaza to raise money for the blood diseases.
All were welcome to participate. Some students and faculty pedaled and sweat, while others opened their pocketbooks and kept the wheels spinning.
Donations of $10 kept participants pedalling for 30-minute
intervals.
Mike White, business senior, pedaled for more than two hours in dress slacks, shirt and tie to support the cause.
“As long as people keep donating, I’ll keep riding,” White said. “If my legs fall off, I’ll pedal with my hands.”
Lonnie McHugh, business senior, pedaled for nearly three hours and was looking to spin the wheels for 10 hours straight.
“I plan to be right here ’til tonight, unless my legs give out or I pass out,” McHugh said.
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Several staff and faculty members came out to support the event.
Channel Barbour, associate director of Campus Life, pedaled for 45 minutes in the midday sun, while Josh DeWar, director of Residence Life, stepped up to the wet-seat in the dunk tank and repeatedly plunged into the cold water, as donators stepped up to throw softball-sized rubber balls at the target.
The New Albany Fire Department sent a fire truck to campus to garner support and attention for the event.
The National Guard also set up a table on the edge of the walkways with several soldier representatives attending in full camouflage fatigues. At the edge of the activities, rhythmic “thwops” could be heard as a hand-full of students played cornhole to pass the time.
Josh Deburger, psychology sophomore, made calls out across McCullough Plaza for free hot dogs as several other Pikes manned a compact-car-sized grill next to the food booth.
“This is one of our greatest events ever,” Deburger said. “I’ve never seen this many people stop by and wonder what’s going on. I think it’s great that we found out about it, and that we were able to put it on to raise money.”
Evan Simon, criminal justice senior, who coordinated the event, found out about the Cycle for Life from Pikes at the Bloomington chapter.
In 2008, Taylor Trudeau, a Pi Kappa Alpha from the New Hampshire chapter, died of leukemia. His parents, with the help of his fraternity brothers, created the benefit in his honor.
Each year, more Pi Kappa Alpha chapters across the country have hosted the event.
Simon said about 30 chapters of the 210 nationwide participate in this annual event.
“Every single dime goes to research,” Simon said. “We’re not making anything off this — except community service hours.”
Zellers said Simon gave them the idea and the structure.
“We went out through the community and collected sponsors, and they sent us everything from there,” Zellers said.
Donated door prizes were raffled off during the day and included $50 Sam’s Club gift certificates, $100 in gift certificates from Applebee’s and two $30 gift certificates from Pacer’s and Racer’s Running Store. Other donations were given by Buffalo Wild Wings and Mark’s Feed Store. All Sport supplied energy drinks for the event.
Alpha Phi, Sigma Kappa and Phi Sigma Sigma sororities donated money to make T-shirts for the event, which were handed out freely to donors and participants.
As the day turned to night, the cyclists wound down their stretch and closed it out around 10 p.m.
The longest pedallers of the day were Simon at three hours and 30 minutes and McHugh with five hours spinning the wheels.
The event pulled in $1,000 for the day, and Zellers said he considered it a success, calling it their “pre-year,” for the benefit.
“We want to make this an annual event,” Zellers said. “We think it’s a good cause, and putting it on was a lot of fun. We hope to make it bigger, better next year.”
By SAM WEBER
Staff
samweber@ius.edu