Why we ride.

Our mission is to encourage young individuals—the “kids”—to pursue education and career opportunities in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

100% of the funds raised by Bike Ride for the Kids support FIRST Lego teams in the places we live and work:

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology.

In the FIRST Lego League (FLL), students design, build, and program a LEGO MINDSTORMS robot to perform autonomous missions on an obstacle course.

The cost of supporting (1) team of 10-15 kids can range from $1,000-$5,000 — this year, our goal is to raise $100,000 to support this cause.

ARCO/Murray Charitable Corporation is an exempt organization as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; EIN 47-4780502

Meet our sponsors.

This year's ride will include a month-long virtual competition and then our traditional in-person bike ride back to Notre Dame! The virtual competition will start Friday, September 18th and extend 4 weeks through October 13th (9/18 - 10/13).

Competition Details.

This year's ride will again include a month-long virtual competition plus the traditional in-person bike ride to Notre Dame!

The virtual competition will start Friday, September 18th and extend 4 weeks through October 13th (9/18 - 10/13) and the LIVE in-person bike ride will take place on Friday, October 13th from downtown Chicago to South Bend.

The virtual competition will be organized through the free activity service, Strava, to allow participants to log as many biking AND running miles as possible. Both the virtual competition and live ride will encourage participants to bike/run for donations to support FIRST Lego League and STEM Education. For every $100 raised, participants will earn additional “miles” to be added to their score (10 bike miles or 2.5 running miles per $100).

For this year's fundraising goal we are targeting raising $100,000 for the Bike Ride for the Kids mission!

Interested in Joining?

  1. Register for the competition: If you are renting a bike from our rental partners, 3rd Coast Cycles, be sure to use the separate link to reserve your bike rental via their Google Form!
  2. Create a FREE Strava account — all participants will need to have a Strava account to log their activity.
  3. Be sure to go to your BRFTK Profile on this website and click the "Connect with STRAVA" button!
  4. Start riding/running (on September 18th) and log your mileage through Strava*
  5. And start fundraising now, registration and the leaderboard are now open!
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