Emily Kathrein, junior in advertising, will spend her summer traveling across the United States. Her trip won’t consist of sight-seeing and tourism but of cycling and volunteering with Bike & Build, an organization that manages service-oriented cycling trips that promote affordable housing.

Kathrein is an ISU student who found about Bike & Build last year through another cycling activity she was involved with, RAGBRAI.

From the time she learned to ride a bike with no training wheels, Kathrein has been in love with cycling, as well as volunteering. When she graduates, she hopes to spend some time volunteering and traveling the world.

Bike & Build is a national non-profit organization that works to raise money and awareness for affordable housing. Young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who become involved with Bike & Build cycle from coast to coast, giving presentations to towns along the routes and helping to construct homes.

The organization began in 2002 with two cross-country cycling trips. Every year, another trip had been added until it reached a maximum of eight routes. In the past eight seasons, the Bike & Build organization has worked to raise more than $2,780,000 in order to fund planned housing projects.

Each year there is one team for each of the eight routes. Each team is made up of 28 riders and four leaders. Bike & Build accepts a limited amount of people from all across the nation. Only four people from Iowa were accepted.

“The program is first come, first served,” said Molly Jacobs, office and program coordinator of Bike & Build. “In 2010, we offered an early registration lottery in which every rider who applied during a week-long period received a random lottery number. These numbers were then used to assign routes.”

“We ended up having more early applicants than spots available, so the remaining early registrants and anyone applying after the lottery went directly on a wait list for the next open spot.”

Kathrein’s love of cycling encouraged her to participate in RAGBRAI when she came to Iowa for college. Another RAGBRAI participant mentioned Bike & Build during a conversation, and Kathrein’s interest was immediately captured.

“One of my friends there mentioned Bike & Build to me,” Kathrein said. “He had done it a few years back and said it was one of the best experiences of his life.”

After Kathrein finished up RAGBRAI, she immediately began researching Bike & Build. Convinced this was certainly something she would like to try, Kathrein applied for the program. After writing a series of essays, she was accepted into the program last fall. This year will be her first trip with the program.

“I will be taking more of a southern U.S. route,” Kathrein said. “I will be flying out from Omaha and will fly into Virginia Beach, N.C., May 11. My trip will go until July 23 when we are expected to arrive in San Diego, Calif.”

In the months before their summer of cycling from coast to coast begins, members must raise $4,000 and also go through a strenuous and lengthy process of preparation, logging in about 500 hours of riding time before they set off on their respective routes. In order to raise the allotted $4,000, Bike & Build tries to help riders come up with innovative ideas for fundraising.

“We provide about a 100-page rider manual that has a fundraising section,” Jacobs said. “We offer tips on letter writing, including samples from previous riders and ideas for fundraising events.”

“This year, one of the riders is raising money by raffling off the rights to her middle name. We also get a few riders who receive corporate donations by wearing logos on their jerseys and bikes.”

During the trips, members will combine their love of cycling with their love of volunteering by participating in scheduled Build Days. During the Build Days, the volunteers will trade their bikes for tools in order to work on the construction of a home with such affordable housing organizations as Habitat for Humanity or Blitz Build.

“Over the last eight seasons, we’ve donated 80,000 hours of service,” Jacobs said.

The volunteers of Bike & Build will have a fundraiser April 9 by setting up marathon trainers in front of the Skunk River Cycles store on Main Street. They will bike outside on the trainers to grab the attention of passersby and raise awareness and interest for the cause.

Proceeds from the trips go directly to the Bike & Build organization, which distributes the money in four different ways: en-route donations, competitive grants, individual rider grants and pre-arranged donations, according to the Bike & Build official website. These proceeds go toward many affordable housing organizations.

“While we’re not affiliated with Habitat for Humanity or Rebuilding Together, their chapters tend to receive the bulk of our grants,” Jacobs said.

Upon her return from San Diego, Kathrein hopes to follow up her trip by participating in RAGBRAI.