The affordable housing cause is a nation-wide awareness of families and individuals in need of better homes they can afford.

Bike and Build is an organization that offers groups of 30 volunteers to travel across the nation, on a route, by bicycle. The goal behind this is to increase awareness — the biking portion and to help those in need — the building portion.

Volunteers set out on their nation-wide path, stopping in cities and towns, working together with other programs and organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together.

Zoey Mauck, freshman in landscape architecture, is participating in this effort to help families by building one house at a time.

Mauck is taking the South Carolina to Santa Cruz route. Her bio on the Bike and Build webpage will give updates on where she is at throughout her trip, but she also has her own personal blog that she encourages people to visit and to donate for the affordable housing cause (zoeyandherbike.wordpress.com).

There are eight coast-to-coast routes available to take, according to Bikeandbuild.org:

• Connecticut to California
  • (4072 total mi.)
• Central US
  • (3869 total mi.)
• Maine to Santa Barbara
  • (3993 total mi.)
• North Carolina to San Diego
  • (3597 total mi.)
• Northern US
  • (4011 total mi.)
• Providence to Seattle
  • (3940 total mi.)
• South Carolina to Santa Cruz
  • (4234 total mi.)
• Southern U.S.
  • (4083 total mi.)

Each of the coastal routes take about three months to complete.

There is a shorter, memorial route offered, as well as two different Regional Drift Trips. These are shorter, and therefore, cost less to fundraise for. Many participate in these shorter-distance trips because they are not as long and may offer better flexibility.

To volunteer as a cyclist for Bike and Build, apply in the fall online, or to see what cities each route stops in, visit their webpage at bikeandbuild.org and visit the Facebook page.