Opinion : Remembering Paige Hicks with honor

Piage Hicks died in accident a few days after riding through Van Horne, IA, with Bike and Build.

Paige Hicks of the St.Louis area spent only an hour or two of her 21 years in Benton County.

While here, she saw our area from the same perspective from which she saw approximately half of the states in the U.S.: From the seat of her bicycle while traveling across the country on the back roads, just off the major highways.

I spoke to Paige very briefly, near a stop sign on Main Street in Van Horne, on July 12. She and a few other members of her Bike and Build team spoke about their trip from Providence, R.I., to Seattle, and how they looked forward to helping people build homes all across the U.S.

But I received an email Wednesday with some awful news: Paige was killed on that bicycle in South Dakota. In what officers call a "tragedy of consequences," she was hit by a wide-load semi hauling a combine while she was stopped with a fellow rider on the shoulder of a two-lane highway in South Dakota.

The Bike and Build organization is handling the first such tragedy of its 8-year existence well, providing as much information as possible, and support to Paige's family and the other riders.

The organization left it up to the riders whether or not to finish their journey to Seattle, and they chose to do that. I am sure Paige would want them to continue. After making a trip to Paige's hometown for a memorial service, they will return to the road and pedal to Seattle.

Here, in Paige's own words, are what motivated her to ride across the country with bike and build last year, and to sign up again for the ride this year:

"I am a proud alum of Bike and Build Providence to San Francisco 2009. Last summer was the most amazing experience of my life- and I want to do it again. I'm Paige, I go to Brown University in Rhode Island. As I'm typing this, I'm studying abroad in Barcelona for a semester.

"I originally heard about Bike and Build from a friend on my school's Ultimate Frisbee team. I was unacquainted with the affordable housing aspect of the trip, but interested in the biking.

"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. I really liked learning about the goals of the establishment and what exactly we were doing to help. Stops and build days like that are what I want to bring to my Bike and Build trip this year.

"My parents deserve a shoutout, because I haven't yet told them I'm reapplying. Last summer, my mother joined us on her bike and my father brought us cookies. Thank you for your continual support of life plans and always being there when I need you."

On the lighter side, Paige loved Harry Potter books, in all languages, and her favorite sandwich was peanut butter on potato chips.

Everyone whose life has been touched by Paige, literally from coast to coast, will remember her with fondness and thankfulness.

And it's my guess that the terrific people at Bike and Build will honor Paige Hicks by doing even more for others who need a better place to live.

(Click HERE to see the story about Paige and other Bike and Build riders as they rode through Benton County.)