Six members of the Kansas University Pi Kappa Phi fraternity will begin a 3,500-mile bicycle trek across the United States today to benefit people with disabilities.

Pi Kappa Phi’s national philanthropy, Push America, sends about 70 college men each summer on the Journey of Hope, a two-month bicycle trip that raises money for the organization. Push America provides services and raises money for agencies that help people with disabilities, said Melanie Zachow, Push America’s director of marketing.

Jacob Albers, president of Pi Kappa Phi’s KU chapter, said KU is one of only two universities in the United States to send members on this year’s Journey of Hope.

“We’re extremely involved,” he said.

Members of the Journey of Hope team were selected from almost 200 applicants, Zachow said. Those applying filled out applications and then underwent an interview.

“We do have a grade requirement, and they should, of course, be leaders on campus,” she said. “They are the cream of the crop.”

Wes O’Neal, a Lawrence senior, said he and the other five men from KU who made the team raised more than $28,000 for Push America.

O’Neal left Wednesday for San Francisco, Calif. His team will bike 64 days before it reaches Washington, D.C., in August.

“I’m extremely excited to be getting ready to leave,” O’Neal said Tuesday.

Although O’Neal enjoys riding his bicycle and has been training since December, he said he most looks forward to spending time with the disabled.

“It’s just such a great time helping them out,” he said.

Zachow said when the bicyclists stop in cities they will make what the Push America calls friendship visits. They will partner with local organizations to do activities with disabled people, ranging from eating to dancing to talking.

“The friendship visits are the things that have the greatest impact on the people, not only the people with disabilities and the people there, but especially on the team members,” Zachow said.

O’Neal said he didn’t have a particular interest in assisting the disabled until he joined Pi Kappa Phi.

“It’s just been such a focus of our fraternity,” he said.

Through Pi Kappa Phi, O’Neal has participated in several Push America events at different locations around the country, where he has helped build structures to make facilities more accessible to the disabled and spent time interacting with the disabled.

O’Neal said these experiences are what caused him to want to go on the Journey of Hope.

“(Disabled people) have been through so much more than I have, and they can do everything anyone else can do,” he said. “They just do these things in different ways.”