The team’s collective lack of biking experience has prompted many people to ask the simple question of why they would take on the challenge, Hanson said. She welcomes the question, though, because it then gives her a chance to tell people about The Refuge and talk about her passion to solve the problem of human trafficking.

“I think that a lot of people have this idea about human trafficking in their head that it is like the movie Taken or something that just happens in foreign countries or whatever it may be,” she said. “A lot of people don’t realize that it is something that’s so local and most likely happening in their city. The girls that this is happening to, they don’t have a voice, and so we get to be their voice. ...”

Hanson and the other team members have a training schedule to prepare for the trip, and so far, she said she has made it to about 20 miles per day, just biking around College Station. During the trip, the women will average 50 miles per day.

“It’s just a process of pushing your body whenever you think your body can’t take any more,” she said. “I know the same is going to be true when we’re on the trip; we’re going to be pushing ourselves like our bodies have never experienced before.”