This fall, Team Samaritan USA will take on the Ride Across America, an extraordinary 3,000-mile journey from San Diego, California, to St. Augustine, Florida. From October 4 through November 16, 2026, 12 Colorado cyclists will ride approximately 65 millas each day for 45 days, crossing the country to raise awareness and critical funding for neighbors experiencing homelessness. The ride supports Catholic Charities of Denver’s Samaritan House ministries in Denver, Fort Collins, and Greeley, where women, families, veterans, seniors, and others find safe shelter, nourishing meals, compassionate support, and a path toward greater stability. Along the route, cyclists will share stories, meet communities, and invite people nationwide to follow, pray, and give. Every mile represents determination, generosity, and shared hope. Through this coast-to-coast effort, Team Samaritan USA is bringing attention to homelessness while supporting neighbors, transforming lives, and showing what can truly happen when people come together for a purpose greater than themselves.

Challenge or Need

The Ride Across America with Team Samaritan USA was designed to address two closely connected challenges: the growing need for support for people experiencing homelessness and the need to build broader awareness of the realities they face.

Catholic Charities of Denver’s Samaritan House ministries serve women, families, veterans, seniors, and others working to regain stability. Meeting those needs requires far more than a safe place to stay. It also requires nutritious meals, case management, employment support, transportation, compassionate care, and the resources necessary to help each person move toward greater independence. As demand continues to grow, so does the need for sustained funding and community involvement.

The Ride Across America creates a compelling way to bring that need to communities nationwide. Through a 3,000-mile, coast-to-coast cycling journey, Team Samaritan USA raises critical funds while encouraging people to learn, pray, give, and become part of the solution.

The program was also created to challenge common assumptions about homelessness. By sharing stories of resilience, hope, and transformation, the ride helps people see the individuals and families behind the statistics.

Ultimately, the Ride Across America turns an extraordinary athletic effort into meaningful action — supporting neighbors, transforming lives, and inspiring communities across the country to respond with generosity and compassion.

Why It’s Innovative

The Ride Across America is innovative because it transforms a cross-country endurance event into a nationwide collaboration among Catholic Charities agencies, supporters, and local communities. Rather than focusing on a single city or ministry, the ride creates a shared platform to raise awareness of homelessness while strengthening relationships across the Catholic Charities network.

As Team Samaritan USA travels from California to Florida, cyclists will partner with Catholic Charities agencies along the route to host community events, share stories, engage donors and volunteers, and highlight the unique ways each agency serves its neighbors. The goal is not only to raise funds for Samaritan House in Colorado, but also to increase visibility for Catholic Charities ministries nationwide, foster collaboration among agencies, and demonstrate the collective impact of the Catholic Charities mission.

The ride also leverages the power of storytelling. Each day, the team will share compelling stories from the road, introducing people to the ministries, staff, volunteers, and individuals whose lives have been transformed through Catholic Charities. This creates an ongoing national conversation rather than a single fundraising event.

By combining athletic endurance, digital storytelling, cross-country partnerships, and a unified Catholic mission, the Ride Across America becomes much more than a bike ride. It is a moving campaign of hope that builds stronger relationships across the Catholic Charities family while inspiring generosity, advocacy, and action in communities from coast to coast.

Program Impact

Team Samaritan USA has already demonstrated the power of endurance athletics to advance the mission of Catholic Charities. Over the past 15 years, Team Samaritan participants and supporters have raised more than $2 million to help provide safe shelter, meals, and supportive services for neighbors experiencing homelessness through Samaritan House ministries.

The Ride Across America is designed to build on that success at an entirely new scale. Covering more than 3,000 millas across 10 states in 45 days, the initiative will introduce thousands of people to the work of Catholic Charities through community events, parish visits, media coverage, and daily digital storytelling. Along the way, the team will partner with Catholic Charities agencies across the country, strengthening relationships, sharing best practices, and creating new opportunities for collaboration, fundraising, and public awareness.

Success will be measured not only by dollars raised, but also by increased public engagement, expanded volunteer involvement, new corporate and parish partnerships, media impressions, and the lasting relationships formed among Catholic Charities agencies nationwide. The Ride Across America is creating a model for how endurance sports, storytelling, and faith-based collaboration can inspire generosity while supporting neighbors and transforming lives.

Lessons Learned

One of our greatest lessons has been that people are inspired by purpose far more than by fundraising alone. When supporters understand the “why” behind an initiative and can connect with the lives being transformed, they become long-term advocates rather than one-time donors.

We’ve also learned the importance of making the mission visible. Sharing authentic stories, inviting people into the journey and creating opportunities for participation—whether through prayer, volunteering, giving, or simply following the ride—builds a broader community of support than traditional fundraising campaigns alone.

Perhaps most importantly, we’ve discovered that Catholic Charities agencies are stronger together than apart. The Ride Across America has created opportunities to collaborate with agencies across the country, share ideas, amplify one another’s work, and present a unified witness to the church’s ministry of serving neighbors in need. By working together instead of independently, we can reach new audiences, strengthen relationships, and demonstrate the collective impact of Catholic Charities nationwide.

Our hope is that this model can be adapted by other agencies, using creativity, storytelling, partnerships, and shared mission to engage communities in new ways while advancing the common work of Catholic Charities.