Biking for Babies
Happy New Year's everyone,

It is hard to believe--we're already past halfway to our New Orleans to Chicago ride for 2013 which begins on July 6th; the riders and support crew have already begun working hard to get ready for it! 

The primary reason for us contacting you today is this exciting news... the two founders of the Biking for Babies ride, Jimmy Becker and Michael Schaefer, will be special guests on the television show, "Life on the Rock", on the EWTN station. 

They will be sharing their story of how Biking for Babies began and how it helps young people contribute to pro-life work. 

We hope that you have time to share this experience with Mike and Jimmy; they are both very excited about this opportunity to share Biking for Babies' story! 

They will be featured on the Thursday, January 24th episode of "Life on the Rock" at 9pm central time. Please check with your cable provider to see on what station you can find the EWTN station. 

If you don't have access to cable and would still like to watch, there are several options: you can find an audio archive of the show here, or you can find a clip of the episode on YouTube. Simply type "Life on the Rock, Mike & Jimmy, Biking for Babies" into the search bar at the top of the screen. 

Once again, thank you VERY much for all of the work that all of you have done to help increase the reach of Biking for Babies' pro-life work. We really hope that you are able to be a part of this special experience and please share this exciting news with your friends and family!

Thank you for your time and God Bless,
The Biking for Babies Team

The 2012 B4B journey may be over... but the pro-life movement continues gaining strength!  Check out the team's Day 7 video and a personal reflection from one of the bikers to find out more about their impressive finale.

A reflection from one of the bikers:
I wish there was something more meaningful that could be said about the ride here than anything that has been said or will be said here; but, alas, my handle on the English language is still fairly limited at my youthful age of 23 and a half.

I can simply say that it was a real blessing to bike with and be supported by such wonderful friends. It really isn’t a cause for which we ride. It’s because life is worth living that we ride. The linguistic, political, and social framework of that which is “pro-life”, in as much as it may look similar to any other social platform, only attempts to share with others the far bigger and more meaningful reality of something that we are certain of because there is something ultimately very beautiful about it–something so valuable and noble at every stage in life that we fear doing damage to our own humanity should we take it away from someone else, no matter the circumstance.

So, with that, those are my final words on this post for Biking for Babies 2012. We are still short of our financial goal of $40,000, so please continue to spread the word about the ride.

In addition, the mission of the ride goes far beyond fundraising–it exists to cultivate pro-life work and involvement in everyday life, by volunteering at pregnancy centers, pro-lifers who work for legislation, and other ways.

Thank you again to all of your generosity and have a great rest of your summer!

Check out this clip to see how the bikers are staying strong as they crossed the mighty Mississippi yesterday!

By: Jimmy Becker; written on May 23
Hey y’all! (I believe that’s how these southern folk say it)

Today, we had a gentle 100 mile trek from Lis’s house in Madison to Greenwood, Mississippi. The landscape provided both little resistance and little spectacle, as we travelled past field after rolling, flat field. The average day for the support vehicle involves supplying food for the riders, navigation, and rest-stop-coordination. The mid-ride water bottle handoffs are particularly awesome, as we line up on the side of the road while the bikers swoop by and pick up their filled beverage containers (this, of course, is assuming the bikers GRAB the bottles, not PUNCH them out of your hand *cough* *Mike* *cough*). Today’s route, being particularly desolate in terms of human interaction (seriously, the combined populations of the towns we passed through today surely didn’t surpass the triple digits) was a great opportunity to further develop the camaraderie of both the support team and the biking team; this bonding ranged from singing Grease tunes as the bikers drove by to staging outrageously incomprehensible “accident” scenes in front of the camera during a pit stop.

While yesterday was more centered around building our bond with the community, today has been more of an internal bonding, as only through our fellowship with each other and the grace of God were we able to successfully and painlessly traverse the seemingly endless crop field that is central Mississippi.

Today’s reading is particularly relevant, as it states how “In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” This verse is a reminder of how we, as the support crew, have the God-given duty to give everything we have to these “weak” bikers; their toils are for a fantastic cause, so–in helping them–ours are too. This verse, additionally, applies to the unborn children all around the world. Our toils, as a cohesive Biking for Babies team, are being offered up to end abortion and protect these weak, innocent children. The Gospel, too, sheds light on why we do what we do. “I have given them my word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” This verse is an inspiration, for it tells us that, though people may hate us for what we stand for and though it may separate us from what society deems to be “the world,” everything is alright, as these are the exact conditions under which Jesus loved and preached to the world.

Briefly, we would like to thank Jimmy’s uncle for lending his van to this wonderful cause. That old Honda Odyssey, though we had our doubts when we first saw the vehicle (seriously, it looks like the thing was ridden through a sandstorm and a hurricane simultaneously), it has held up great and we are all slowly falling in love with it. It has become a hub of community and love, as it is a symbol of the noble cause we fight for.

Thank you all for your support and prayers, we love you guys!

God Bless!

-Your B4B Support Team a.k.a Swagga Wagon

To check out videos and read more posts from the B4B team, visit: www.bikingforbabies.com/.

http://www.focus.org/
What would make a group of 10 young adults want to go on a 1,150 mile bike ride?  Call it a mission on wheels.

From May 21 – 29, the group of 10 young men and women will bike from New Orleans to Chicago on this year’s Biking for Babies ride, to raise money for women in crisis pregnancies. This is the fourth year for the ride, founded by FOCUS Missionary, Jimmy Becker (25), and Mike Schaefer (23), who became fast friends while students at the University of Illinois.

The ride is more than a fund raiser. The bikers will stay with host parishes and families along the way, while giving talks on the dignity of life and the terrible losses from abortion.

“The year we were born, over 1.5 million babies were killed by abortion in just the United States alone. How many of those could have been our classmates?  Our teammates?  Our friends?” said Becker. “We’re riding for the 1.5 million that aren’t here to ride with us.”

The original Biking for Babies ride was a 600 mile ride from Carbondale, IL to Chicago, over their spring break, which raised over $13,000. Becker and Schaefer have increased their fundraising each year and hope to reach a goal of $40,000 in this year’s ride. Beneficiaries of this endeavor include organizations in six different states.

We want everyone to have the opportunity to experience the beauty of life as we have,” said Schaefer.  “And with the ride, we are doing our best to promote the protection of life from the moment of conception to a natural death.”

Bike Ride from New Orleans to Chicago…

Becker, originally from Des Moines, IA, now works as a missionary with FOCUS, Fellowship of Catholic University Students at the University of Texas in Austin. Schaefer originally from Freeburg, IL, currently works as the Associate Director at the Newman Center at Bradley University in Peoria. The rest of the team includes a mix of students, seminarians and professionals from Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Virginia, and Wisconsin.  (Read the profiles of all 10 riders atwww.BikingForBabies.com.) 

The team will ride between 90 and 190 miles each day, beginning in New Orleans and making stops in Columbia, Jackson, and Greenwood, MS; Memphis, TN; Cape Girardeau, MO;  Freeburg and Champaign, IL and concluding in Chicago. The group will prepare for the ride by cycling long distances, running and weight training. Many of the riders are competitive athletes.  Becker, Stacy Hague of Chicago, and Jeremy Winter of Mobile, AL are all triathletes. Hague is also on the Cross Country Team at University of Illinois. Schaefer runs marathons and was able to convince fellow teammate Taylor Caputo, of Streator, IL into running a half marathon this past fall for conditioning for Biking for Babies.

Not all this year’s bikers are experienced endurance athletes. Stephen Barany, 22, of South Bend, IN, who drove the support vehicle on last year’s Biking for Babies from Covington, LA to Champaign, IL, humbly admits on the group’s website, “despite my unimpressively average athleticism and fears of failure, I have decided to follow in the pedal strokes of my close friend Mike.”

Videos, more info about the receiving charities, the riders, and how to donate, can be found via the ride’s website:www.BikingForBabies.com and on Facebook: “Biking For Babies.”

For more information, please contact James Becker at Biking for Babies: (515-371-2951) or by email: jbecker@focusonline.org.  Visit the group online at: www.BikingForBabies.com

With just 20 days until their journey begins, the Biking for Babies team shares what personally inspires them to ride an impressive 1,100 miles from New Orleans to Chicago this May.

To find out more about Biking for Babies and the 2012 journey, visit: http://www.bikingforbabies.com/.

Curious to find out just exactly how the Biking for Babies team preps for traveling from New Orleans to Chicago - almost 1200 miles - in 9 days?!  Well, look no further... Jeremy Winter, a seminarian at St. Joseph's College in Benedict, LA, shows us how he spends a typical day in training.  It is a video you definitely don't want to miss, and you might even have to steal a few of his smart strategies for yourself!!

To find out more about Biking for Babies and the 2012 journey, visit: http://www.bikingforbabies.com/.

There are just 31 DAYS until the first coast to coast Biking for Babies journey begins!   That means it's t-shirt time.  To show your support for the pro-life movement and our favorite bikers, find out how you can purchase the 2012 B4B t-shirt.  And if you need any convincing... watch the video Pray, Witness, T-Shirt! starring one of the bikers, Stephen Barany, an undergraduate seminarian at Notre Dame.

Ordering Online:
There is no automatic ordering system set up for this year. Therefore, in order to order online… simply e-mail “mike@bikingforbabies.com,” subject heading: “B4B Tshirts” –including your t-shirt size and shipping address. Payment can be made for the shirt simply by making a donation on the website (www.bikingforbabies.com/) sufficient to cover the cost of the t-shirt and shipping, which is approximately $15.  Thank you for your continued support!!

In March 2009, two University of Illinois students Jimmy Becker and Mike Schaefer biked 636 miles to raise an impressive $13,500 for Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center and Students for Life of Illinois.  And the bikers, mileage, and money for the Pro-Life movement has continued growing ever since:

• March - April 2010: Team Illinois (564 miles; Cairo, IL to Aurora, IL) + Team Wisconsin (500 miles; Aurora, IL to Champaign, IL) = $15,000 for Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center and Students for Life of Illinois.
• June 2011: 5 bikers + 860 miles (Covington, LA to Champaign, IL) = $21,185.20 for Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center, Students for Life of Illinois, and A Women's Care Center
• June 2012: 10 bikers + _____ miles = $_________? 

To meet the riders, check out past rides, watch videos, donate, or learn more, visit: http://www.bikingforbabies.com/

Originally posted on March 2, 2012 
Hello!
Preparation for Biking for Babies has begun once again! 

We hope that you are as excited as we are!  The Biking for Babies Team is larger than ever, with ten riders from across the Midwest.  We could tell you all about it, but it's much easier for you to watch the new video!  Click here to watch!

Thank you very much for your past support!  We look forward to working with you once again this year to help the pro-life cause!

For the Babies, 
     --Team Biking for Babies 2012

P.S. After you watch the video, be sure to click on the "like" button below so you can share it on Facebook and Twitter!  Click here to watch the video.