Support Biking for Babies with Support Life event
by Benjamin Shane Evans | June 30, 2026
“Woe to you if you do not succeed in defending life!”
This statement by St. John Paul II in his 1993 homily at the 8th World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado, inspired the creation of Biking for Babies, an organization dedicated to empowering missionaries and laity to uphold the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.
While in college, Des Moines native and St. Luke the Evangelist parishioner Jimmy Becker and friend Mike Schaefer co-founded the multi-day pro-life biking trip with its inaugural ride from Carbondale to Chicago, Illinois, in Spring 2009.
“I believe that St. John Paul II had that prophetic sight or vision where he not only saw the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but even more so, he saw the true transformation from death to life take place,” Becker said.
Since 2009, the organization has trained through a six-month formation program over 297 young adults who have ridden over 41,000 miles across 26 states. It has also raised approximately $2.5 million for pregnancy centers in the United States. In 2025 alone, the organization formed 84 young adults, who evangelized over 850 people at 33 national ride events in 55 cities.
“The goal is to encourage [missionaries] and to bring about a transformative change that we all hope to see happen within our lifetimes,” Becker said. “I think it’s really a rally cry and a call to action for each one of us to play our respective role in seeing about that transformation from death to life.”
From July 12-18, 84 missionaries will ride nine routes comprised of 600-700 miles each. One of those routes will travel from Rochester, MN, through West Des Moines and stop at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on the way to St. Louis. The parish will host a Support Life event for the team on Wednesday, July 15, which will include a 5 p.m. Mass given by Bishop William Joensen and fundraising dinner to be held in the parish hall.
St. Francis of Assisi Leadership Council Chair Steve Craig said that the St. Francis Knights of Columbus and Respect Life Committee expanded from solely housing and feeding riders to hosting a parish-wide fundraising dinner with a free-will offering to support local pregnancy resource centers like InnerVisions and Agape.
“People [in the larger culture] don’t respect life and don’t protect it from conception till death,” Craig said. “[Biking for Babies] trains in the culture of life and gets them to become missionaries in the culture of life while they’re also going through this physical conditioning.”
The support for the team is parish-wide, with St. Francis of Assisi parishioners Randy and Cindy Jensen coordinate the housing of the team stopping in West Des Moines, and work directly with four host families to ensure that team members have a place to rest before continuing the journey to St. Louis.
“People love to be part of something bigger than themselves,” Jensen said. “And so when we extend this invitation to neighbors to host these families, they just love doing it. They like to be involved in something that’s pro-life and has such a positive impact.”
Both Randy and Cindy Jensen said that parishioners are excited to support the mission of the team and the overall organization, which seeks to create a “whole new generation of pro-life active young people who will change the landscape.”
“This is actually going out and being with people, interacting and having experiences one-on-one with people, and spending time to change hearts,” Jensen said.
Last year’s dinner drew 175 attendees and raised just over $5,000, with a goal of 200 attendees to raise $6,000-7,000 this year. To register for the dinner, scan the QR code below.
Biking for Babies is a national 501(c)(3) organization promoting a culture of life.