College students in a charity bicycling group that supports affordable housing on cross-country bicycle tours are mourning the loss of one of their fellow riders.
Paige Hicks of Chesterfield, Missouri, was struck and killed by a truck in South Dakota on Tuesday. She was a student at Brown University.
She was on her second cross-country bicycle ride for Bike & Build. The group organizes college students to raise money for affordable housing projects and help build houses at different locations as they ride their bikes coast-to-coast.
Hicks was riding the Providence, Rhode Island, to Seattle route this summer.
News reports say that she had pulled off onto the shoulder of US Route 18 with another rider to check her cell phone messages when she was struck by a tractor-trailer hauling a combine. The other cyclist was not injured.
Learn about housing
Last summer, she bicycled on the Providence to San Francisco route. At the Bike & Build website, she wrote that she was returning this year to learn more about problems caused by shortage of affordable housing:
“After last summer, however, I recognize that all national issues (health care, education, etc) trace back to lack of homes. What I want to learn more about are some of the root causes of homelessness and how we could work to attack the problem from the base up. Last summer, a stop in Danbury, CT really helped open my eyes to homelessness. An organization there was working to house veterans in a temporary or permanent setting, functioning as a halfway house for a large constituency.”
Marc Bush, founder of Bike & Build, wrote:
“Paige’s dedication to our organization and affordable housing partners, her friendship and fellowship with members of our community, and her enthusiasm for and love of life were all qualities which endeared Paige to our community and which we will dearly miss.”
Building projects
In addition to raising money to help fund projects, such as those by Habitat for Humanity, Hicks and her fellow cyclists were scheduled to stop and pitch in at building sites. So far they'd stopped at Binghampton, New York; Youngstown and Dayton, Ohio; and Sioux City, Iowa.
A stop help at a Habitat for Humanity home under construction in Caspar, Wyoming, was cancelled because of the tragedy. Projects are still scheduled in Missoula, Montana, and Hayden, Idaho.
Memorials
A visitation and memorial service is planned Sunday (today) and Monday in the St. Louis area.
The family was to received visitors from 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Kriegshauser West Funeral Home, located at 9450 Olive Boulevard, St. Louis.
A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Monday at Marquette High School Commons, located at 2351 Clarkson Road, Chesterfield, Missouri.
In lieu of flowers, Paige's family asks that those wishing to make a contribution do so in her memory at Bike & Build or Habitat for Humanity.
Bike & Build has raised $2.3 million over the past seven years for affordable housing projects. Eight rides are making their way across the US this summer.
More information about the charity at Bike & Build website and on Facebook.
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