Eighty-four young adults spent six days in July biking across the country to show that life is worth the sacrifice.
Biking for Babies missionaries traversed approximately 600 miles on nine different routes, including two routes from Columbus, that departed from several states earlier this month to raise money and awareness for pregnancy resource centers. Six routes converged in St. Louis on July 19 and another three in Philadelphia.
The Biking for Babies organization seeks to renew the culture of life by forming young adults into missionaries of the Gospel of Life, increasing awareness for pregnancy resource centers, and raising financial and spiritual support for pregnant mothers in need. The organization’s National Ride is the pinnacle of its missionary formation program.
Teams consist of bicycle riders and support crew, who serve riders while following along in a van.
The Ohio West Team, one of nine teams, departed from the Columbus area on July 14. Its eight team members stopped by the Women’s Care Center at its downtown Columbus location – one of 37 centers in the United States – for a tour before the ride.
The Columbus Women’s Care Center, which has two locations, is one of 95 pregnancy resource centers partnered with Biking for Babies this year. Each missionary is paired with a center.
An application for pregnancy resource centers to partner with Biking for Babies opened in November. Chapman Giles, Columbus outreach lead at the Women’s Care Center, said the Columbus center is grateful to be chosen.
“With the partnership comes many prayers and, of course, donations, but we’re trying to brainstorm how we as the non-profit can recruit more missionaries for them and support them while their bikers are doing their mission work, so definitely something that we’ll expand upon in the future,” she said.
Missionaries raise money to support the work of pregnancy centers. They pray for their center and share its stories along the 600-mile bike route.
“We want to start a conversation. We do not expect everybody to agree with us, and that’s almost better when people are honest about what they believe because we can invite them into a conversation, and we truly try to do everything with love,” said Nikki Biese, executive director of Biking for Babies.
“We’re able to share real stories of women supported and truly point to the reality of women in unplanned pregnancies needing support. And then, we start with that common ground and hope to get to a place where we can share the reason for our hope, which is Jesus, and that God made each of us in His image, and that we need to honor and dignify life, and that means supporting life.”
Missionaries who are accepted into the Biking for Babies program begin formation in March. In addition to physical preparation and weekly multi-mile bike rides, missionaries are formed spiritually.
Participants spend time reading Scripture to interiorly form themselves to spread Christ in the world.
“It really does form us into being missionaries for Christ and to build a culture of life and to have that relationship with the pregnancy resource center we’re partnered with, to know what we can be offering up during the ride, what we can be praying for,” said Leah McKee, a support crew member.
Support crew are trained in best safety practices and how to help riders stay healthy throughout the ride. They also take on sacrifices.
McKee, who works at St. Mary School and Church in Wooster, part of the Diocese of Cleveland, completed 100 push-ups each day. She said she offered each one for the team by name and for the pregnancy resource center that she was partnered with.
Each support crew member practices a form of asceticism to put “aside our own desires for something that’s better and very worthwhile,” Christopher Dacanay explained.
As a support crew member, he chose to take exclusively cold showers to interiorly prepare for the ride. Dacanay, who works in news media in Pittsburgh and is a recent graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, also prepared by reciting the Liturgy of the Hours, which is prayed at set times each day by clergy.
In addition to wanting to support pregnancy resource centers, Dacanay desired to offer his time and abilities to make a difference.
“That’s what I keep telling people whenever they ask me, ‘Oh, why are you doing this?’ Well, it’s really just to have an impact, to use the time that we have in this life for something that’s good, not sit idly by, and I really resonate with the mission of Biking for Babies,” he said.
“It challenges each of us to live very sacrificially, to put aside our wants and needs for something that’s bigger than ourselves, to make the world a better place and help mothers and their children who are struggling.”
Dacanay was partnered with the Columbus Women’s Care Center. His desire to support pregnancy centers began while studying at Franciscan University. It was largely the impetus for applying to Biking for Babies.
“I studied journalism. … For one of my projects, I had to do a multi-part story, and I did that on the pregnancy resource center that’s located there (in Steubenville) and still is, and that really opened my eyes to the great things that these kinds of centers do,” he said.
Paired with the Columbus Women’s Care Center, Dacanay learned about the center’s strengths-based counseling method, which affirms pregnant women in need and helps mothers acknowledge their strengths and dignity while supporting them and their child through kindergarten.
Giles said the Columbus center is on track to serve more than 4,000 women this year. It is also in the process of constructing a fourth ultrasound suite and a second parenting classroom. Parenting classes at the center are offered in three different languages.
Women’s Care Centers are located near abortion facilities to be accessible to women most in need.
“I think it’s ironic that it’s called being pro-choice,” Dacanay said, “but really, a lot of the times, women are choosing abortion because they feel they have no other choice, but really that couldn’t be any further from the truth.
“Here,” he said of the Women’s Care Center, “they’re telling them about, here are the different options that you have, and empowering them with knowledge.”
“The society, the culture of death, tells them, like, if you have a kid, you’re not going to be ahead. You have a kid, you’re not going to do this, that and the other thing – all those lies that the world tells these mothers – and I often feel like it just kind of takes one person to be like, ‘No, that’s wrong. That’s a lie. That’s not of the Lord. Let’s help you see, like, you’re a beloved daughter,’” rider Joseph Massaro said.
Massaro, from Seville in the Diocese of Cleveland, graduated from Franciscan University last year. He rode on the Ohio west route this summer.
“I’ve been doing this for three years, and I keep on coming back because it’s a great community of young people spreading the Gospel of Life,” he said.
Massaro said he discovered Biking for Babies accidently while in college. At the time, he was listening to a podcast that encouraged Catholics to be active in pro-life ministry.
He spent much time riding bikes in college. He said he noticed several Catholic young adults – priests, religious and laity – biking through in mid-July. He researched more about it, ultimately discovering the Biking for Babies organization.
“Our goal is just to get the word out as much as possible because we want that cultural renewal that we feel God is calling us to,” Biese said, “and it starts with, just honestly, one heart, one mind at a time.”
Biking for Babies’ first ride consisted of two members who biked to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 2009. The national journey began in 2010 with teams riding from New Orleans to Champaign, Illinois. In the following years, routes expanded from Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
Biese served as the organization’s first full-time employee in 2018 when assuming the role of executive director. Staff has since expanded to six full-time members.
To make a contribution, visit www.BikingForBabies.com/Give.