After biking 127 miles from his home on the south side of Chicago on Friday, Patrick Cummings had finally reached his destination – Kam’s.

Cummings made the 13-hour bike ride to raise money for Southwest Chicago Public Action to Deliver Shelter. With the help of donations from sponsors and a charity event held at Kam’s, Cummings was able to raise more than $11,500 for the cause.

The money raised will help the shelter provide daily meals for its clients and allow them to work with a social worker.

“When you’re homeless for a while, you can’t just get back to work,” Cummings said. “The shelter social worker helps people become employable and live on their own.”

Cummings said the people he met and programs he saw the organization doing made him want to contribute more.

“I started out helping at the clothes pantry, and it was such a great cause that I wanted to do more,” Cummings said. “I ended up being on the Board of Directors.”

With his daughter, Katie, and son, Brian, both on campus, the recently turned 50-year-old decided the bike trip from Chicago to Champaign would be a good way to raise money for the Southwest Chicago organizations.

“I started riding a bike a lot and decided to deal with my mid-life crisis and visit my kids at the same time,” Cummings said.

Katie Cummings, Patrick’s daughter and a sophomore in LAS, said her dad has tackled similar adventurous endeavors.

“He did the Grand Canyon rim to rim in a day … This was not out of the ordinary for him, but my first reaction was still ‘There’s no way. Absolutely no way,'” Katie Cummings said.

Katie Cummings said although she at first questioned her dad’s reasoning for making the 127-mile trek, as soon as she found out he was doing it to support the organization, she was more than willing to help.

“He’s such a good-hearted guy. Of course, I would support him,” Katie Cummings said. “I was skeptical but supportive.”

The event planning that began about a month ago came to life when Patrick Cummings rode his bike down Daniel Street up to Kam’s at 6 p.m. Friday. After biking since 5 a.m. and making his way through two light rain showers, he was greeted by about 50 cheering happy hour patrons, his family and a beer. Patrick Cummings said Kam’s seemed like the obvious place to end the charitable trek.

“My daughter was buying her books and I came in Kam’s just looking for a small donation and Eric (Meyer) tried to do everything to help. He was not just willing to help, he wanted to help,” he said. “I knew a lot of kids from Chicago go to Kam’s on campus, so I thought it was a good place to ride to.”

Eric Meyer, owner of Kam’s, said the bar often hosts events for charity and was happy to help the organization.

“We like to do these things that give back to the community,” Meyer said.

Meyer said the bar helped arrange the event, but the Cummings family made most of the effort.

“His daughter, Katie, did a lot of the work with a little help from Kam’s, but it certainly was a family affair,” Meyer said.

Meyer estimates the family affair brought more than 300 people to Kam’s to support Cummings and the Southwest Chicago organization.

Kam’s patrons could drink all the beer and champagne they wanted with a five-dollar donation to the organization. In addition to hosting the event, Kam’s also sponsored Cummings’ journey.

Throughout the day, Katie Cummings posted her dad’s location at the bar to track his progress. Patrick Cummings rode most the way down Route 45 making a stop about every 20 miles to rest and report back to his daughter.

“It was real fun. One of his reports was ‘I’m in Ashkum. The cyclist’s report is my Ashkum is sore,'” she said.

Patrick Cummings said he started stopping every ten miles as he got closer to Champaign and was getting tired, but his family was happy to welcome him at the end. Katie Cummings said she was very pleased with the many people that joined her family to celebrate at Kam’s.

“The crowd that came was great. We could not ask for a better group,” Katie Cummings said. “We are so grateful to everybody that came out and supported my dad and PADS.”