Students bike to raise awareness for education in Uganda

During the last two days, IU students traveled 7,500 miles without leaving Bloomington.

These students helped power the third annual Bike to Uganda event, a stationary bike-a-thon that aims to raise awareness for education in Uganda.

Sophomore Claire Morgan stood under the canopy Thursday afternoon as her day’s work on the stationary bicycle slowly came to a halt.

To her left was sophomore Kristina Kovacich pedaling away on the stationary bicycle. Kovacich said this was her first year participating in the fundraiser after Morgan had recruited her.

Morgan is the chair for the fundraiser Bike to Uganda, an event that raises money to assist establishing and constructing schools in Uganda.

Bike to Uganda is a part of the mother organization Building Tomorrow.

The program is currently full-staffed in Uganda, and schools typically take one to two years to build.

“We raise the funds and then partner with a community over there,” Morgan said. “It’s really their school. They donate the land and put in 25,000 hours.”

Kovacich said participating in the program helped her view the students on campus from a different perspective.

“Not only does it let you be outside and get you away from your classes and your homework, but it’s nice to see how everyone is coming together to do this,” Kovacich said.

“We’ve had a lot of different people participate in this and more than we ever expected. So, it’s nice to see, like, this side of IU — the community service aspect.”

— Michael Majchrowicz