ONE FAMILY’S PHILANTHROPIC LEGACY

by Rachel Greene

WHEN SCOTT CARPENTER WAS INITIATED into the Beta Xi Chapter (Central Michigan) as a refounding father in 1993, there was no way he could have predicted the impact that the Fraternity would have on his life and vice versa. Throughout his undergraduate experience, he supported the philanthropic initiatives of the Fraternity and watched as some of his chapter brothers were able to participate as crew members and cyclists. He was passionate about helping others and supporting those with disabilities, though he never knew how closely this mission would impact his own family.

Aside from his affiliation as a brother of Pi Kappa Phi and his career as a meteorologist, Scott Carpenter holds the important titles of husband to his wife Kelly and father to his three sons, Nolan, Barrett and Travis. As far back as his two oldest sons can remember, their dad always brought them to see the Pi Kappa Phi Journey of Hope team as they passed through their hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Because of this annual tradition, The Ability Experience has always been a small part of the Carpenter family’s life, but the organization became a focal point of their lives when their youngest son, Travis, was born. Travis was born at 1:12 a.m. on July 31, 2007, and he was holding his head up almost immediately. It was as if he was ready to show that he was prepared to measure up to his two older athletic brothers. Just six months after Travis was born, it became apparent that he, alongside his family, would have a battle to face. His father recalled a time when he was changing his diaper as the first instance that the difference in the length of Travis’s legs caught his eye. Not knowing the cause of this but knowing it was not something they had seen with either of their two older sons, the Carpenters took Travis to a physician to see if this could be an indicator of something more serious that would need attention. Sure enough, he was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type 1, a condition that causes tumors to form in the brain, spinal cord and nerves. Neurofibromatosis, or NF, was a term the family had never heard before, but it was one that would change their world forever.

Some individuals with NF display few symptoms and live their lives “normally” in comparison to the rest of the world, while for others, like Travis, it is visibly evident that he is impaired. Travis developed a tumor on his leg that measured nearly two liters. For years, he faced the difficult reality of wanting to be a child and play like the other children, including his two brothers, but having fragile, delicate bones that could break in an instant and cause him agonizing pain. Despite his condition, Travis loves sports and as the youngest of three brothers, has a naturally competitive demeanor that he brings to any game. Because of this and the difficulties that having to be overly cautious all the time was causing him, he made the difficult decision to amputate the leg that was host to his largest tumor.

When the Journey of Hope North Route team passed through in 2019, a special connection was born with one of the cyclists. Derek Lahey, Iota Rho (Western Illinois) first met Travis during a Friendship Visit at Christ United Methodist Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. When the team first arrived at the visit, hosted by the Carpenter family, Lahey’s teammates urged him to go meet Travis because he was talking about NASCAR and racing, something the team knew the cyclist was very passionate about. As the pair got to talking, they realized they had not just a love for NASCAR in common but also shared the same favorite driver and least favorite driver. Over the course of two days, the two formed a bond that extended past racing and exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch when the time came for the cyclists to continue their journey. The two kept in touch regularly throughout the rest of Lahey’s journey across the country, and to his surprise, his friend Travis came to the Journey of Hope arrival in Washington, D.C., and was wearing a shirt made by the Lahey family. At arrival, he was able to share a story about how Travis continued to help him make it through the trip, even if he didn’t know it at the time. On what Lahey described as the worst day of the trip, a day when he was having bike issues, they were nowhere near civilization and general morale was low, his newfound friend Travis sent him an uplifting text message that inspired him to keep going. Now, the two are still close friends, and the Carpenter family considers Lahey to be one of their own. He said, “The Carpenter family is just so welcoming. I know they make me feel like that, but there are so many people in their network that they’ve made feel that same way. You don’t find people like them very often.”

Since he first encountered the Carpenter family in 2019, Lahey’s relationship with not just Travis but the entire family has grown. He regularly receives updates from Mrs. Carpenter about her sons’ lives and loves being an extension of the family, saying, “I am blessed to be a part of their lives, to be one of the many people they have had an impact on and continue to care deeply about. I am one person, but anyone who’s ever ridden North Route knows and loves them.” In 2021, Travis invited Lahey and his wife Shelby to attend the NF Forward benefit, where he was being presented with an NF Strength and Honor Award. His acceptance speech for the award was preceded by a brief video documentary about his journey with NF and the difficult decision he made to have his leg, the host of his largest tumor, amputated. He decided that if he was going to go through with the amputation, he wanted to donate his leg to research, hoping to help others in the future with the same condition. After ultimately undergoing the amputation, Travis said, “I feel better, but I still feel sad that it happened.” Despite no longer having his leg, he still endures pain as well phantom limb symptoms, but he no longer has to exercise the same level of caution or always be wondering and waiting for the next time his leg will break.

This past summer, Nolan Carpenter, the oldest of the brothers, rode the Journey of Hope North Route, the same route the family has been hosting for as long as the boys can remember. As a founding father of Kappa Omega (Utah) and now the chapter’s archon, Nolan has known since before trying to start a chapter of Pi Kappa Phi that one day, he wanted to be a cyclist on the Journey of Hope. For as long as he can remember, his father had taken him to see the cyclists, and since 2013, he has been able to help as his family’s church hosted the cyclists. This year, he was finally able to be one of those cyclists and says his inspiration for completing the trip was his younger brother, Travis. While he had more insight into what Friendship Visits entailed as well as what life with a person living with a disability is like, his experience was still eye opening and he came home at the end of the summer with a refreshed admiration for his brother and the struggles that he endures each day with his NF. As Nolan rode through Wisconsin, Lahey met him along the road and was able to spend time with the whole team, a connection that had been born when Lahey was a cyclist, continuing on even four years later in a different part of the country.

For years now, the Carpenter family has carried on their tradition of welcoming and hosting the men of Journey of Hope’s North Route, men like Lahey, and for the past 16 years, they have shared Travis’s inspiring story as well. In the same way, the family carries the tradition on each year; they have found that the men who pass through their town carry the family in their hearts throughout the rest of their lives. “What’s most amazing to me are the men we see who tell us what year they passed through and remember Travis and the family,” said Mrs. Carpenter. While Lahey is one that the family keeps in close contact with who can testify to the impact the family has had on him, they have no doubt touched numerous individuals’ lives.

Whether a Journey of Hope North Route team member biked a year ago, 10 years ago or anywhere in between, they know and love the Carpenter family and have been inspired by not only their son Travis’s journey with NF, but Nolan dedicating himself to cycling the same route and the family’s resilience. Before adversity impacted them in this deeply personal way, they were still advocating for people with disabilities, and while that passion might have grown when their son Travis was diagnosed with NF, that underlying care and love for others is what makes the Carpenter family such a pillar of their community, The Ability Experience and Pi Kappa Phi.