CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- When some students from Clarksville lost a friend to cancer, they knew they had to do something extraordinary.

Video: Group Remembers Friend With Bike Ride

Fueled by the energy of their friend, the group is preparing to take a bike trip that will take them from Tennessee to Texas.

Catie Summers was 16 years old when she passed away last Christmas from a rare bone cancer that she battled for four years.

Paralyzed from the disease, Summers went to school through it all.

"She never once gave up, even when the disease finally killed her. Even then she wasn't giving up. The disease didn't beat her," said friend Callie Atkins.

It's that fighting spirit that touched her classmates and her Spanish teacher.

In a few days, Danny Magrans along with some of Summers' classmates and friends will ride 1,100 miles to Austin, Texas.

Their final stop is the Lance Armstrong Foundation in Austin.

"This is in memory of her and her strength. I think that's where the strength for all us comes from, her struggle. We know if she could overcome it the way she did, there's nothing we can't do," said Atkins.

Adding to the emotional intensity is the fact that Summers knew about the ride before she died and even helped to plan it.

"When I told her that we were going to do this bike ride, it honestly felt if was in is the presence of an angel. Just to see that glow in her, her grin from ear-to-ear was just something spectacular," said Magrans.

This training is what will provide the strength but her memory is what will provide the drive.

The goal is to raise $100,000, half of which will go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

The rest of the money will go to a scholarship fund in Summers' name. The riders leave later this month.

Several parents and a retired Army colonel will follow the riders, which should take about a week to complete.