Vision & Mission
Why the Race Across America? Why 3,000 miles in 12 days? Because it’s hard. Because there’s a very high chance we won’t succeed. And because we get to do it together.
• When I left the military, I was lucky. My friends and my family were there for me, even when they couldn’t quite understand me. I found new friends, a new “squad,” in college, and some of those friends are still around - even on the crew for this effort. They kept me sane and moving forward. Whenever I slipped, they were there for me.
• Not all veterans are so lucky. For many of us, reconnecting is hard. Sometimes, just getting back to a healthy place is even harder. Fundraising for Team Red, White & Blue helps us to chip in for an organization working to make it just a bit less difficult. Meeting veterans where they are, physically and mentally, in person, and online.
• Most importantly though, we’re taking this on because this challenge is just a small taste of the challenge we know thousands of veterans face. We might not succeed the first time, but we know if we do it together, we’d rather try and fail than not even make the attempt.
• “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
our crew members
Lara SanPietro - Communications & Social Media:
Lara met Brett in 2012 while working at the U.S. Department of State and they have been married since 2018. Lara is also a competitive rider... of horses, not bicycles... but supports Brett in all of his bike-powered adventures, as he supports her in her horse-powered ones.
Matt & Angela Morgan - Medical & Mental Support:
Matt and Angela Morgan are celebrating 20 years of marriage and 20 years of friendship with their rider, Brett. Matt and Angela met Brett when Matt and Brett served together in the Army and they have remained constants in one another's lives since. Matt is still serving in the Army as a major and Angela is a professional counselor. They live in Fayetteville, NC, with their five children.
Akbar Arsiwala - Co-Crew Chief:
Akbar Arsiwala is the Midwest Region Coordinator for the Travis Manion Foundation. Born and raised in Michigan, he enjoyed the outdoors and swimming in the lakes. Before joining the Foundation, Akbar served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, where he learned the tenets of leadership, teamwork, and perseverance. He is passionate about working with veterans to help them redefine their mission and continue to serve their communities. In his free time he enjoys bike rides and the relentless pursuit of the perfect burrito.
Eric Campbell - Mechanic:
Eric has known Brett ever since a Craigslist posting searching for a new roommate with Ian in DC. Since then, Brett noticed Eric’s meteoritic rise in the bike repair community, mostly fixing up stolen bikes. Some years past, and some very good (and horrendous) events happened and friendship grew. Recently, Brett groveled in front of Eric to join his crew. Eric immediately caved to peer pressure, and boom, here we are.
Ian Champ - Co-Crew Chief:
Ian is a born and raised Hoosier from Indianapolis, Indiana and a life-long conservation-nerd. He moved to DC after graduate school for his first real world job, and that’s where he met Brett! Ian had just locked in a cool apartment, and needed a roommate. Brett came by, checked out the space, brought his four legged buddy, and we were sold. Ian’s crewed two of Brett’s races including the incredibly beautiful Natchez 444! He’s still psyched about these races and looking forward to travelling coast to coast with Brett and the crew on this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Lindsay Thurman - Social Media Manager:
Lindsay has known Brett since before she can remember, being his sister and all. She agreed to come on this crazy trip because she’s always down for an adventure and couldn’t turn down the opportunity to show her brother what good social media interaction looks like. When she’s not criss-crossing the country, Lindsay works as a photographer and podcast host. You can find some of her work here and check out her podcast here.
Adrianne Miller - Meal Prep & Content Capture:
Hi! I’m Adrianne I am a teacher who currently teaches 3rd grade. I love to travel, walk my dog, and read. I just graduated with my Masters!
Yachana Kataria -
Virtual Crew, Nutrition & Health Metrics
Yach met Brett during undergrad at UIC. She has more or less supported all of his ridiculous adventures over the last decade. She lives in Boston and works at Boston University as a medical director in the clinical laboratory. She's also a #COVIDBride and currently planning her big fat indian wedding that was cancelled last year. She will be supporting Brett from afar for all things nutrition and data related. Go Science!
James Winters - Virtual Crew, Route Logistics External Comms:
James met Brett freshman year of college in 2005. Together, the two kindled a bromance that has threatened to outshine each of their marriages. James will be providing remote support to the team, with weather updates, mapping, website and social media support. James lives in Valparaiso Indiana with his very patient wife and four year old son. His growing family is expecting a baby girl in the fall.
Our Racer - Brett SanPietro
Brett is an Army veteran (proud former enlisted infantryman before he crossed over to the dark side and became an intelligence officer) and currently serving Navy reservist (inactive - even the Navy wouldn’t let him grow his hair that long). After the Army and before coming to Team RWB, Brett served as a U.S. Diplomat for seven years and tried out corporate life as the VP for a public opinion and analytics company based out of Cambridge, MA.
Points of note in Brett’s varied careers include: responding to the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon while stationed with the Army’s 3rd U.S. Infantry - The Old Guard (where he met crew members Matt & Angela Morgan); deploying to the Horn of Africa region for special operations support missions (where Angela told Brett to make sure Matt didn’t do anything stupid); starting out as a theatre major and then switching to poli sci while at the University of Illinois at Chicago (where he met crew member James Winters… who also started as a theatre major and switched); and serving with the State Department in both Djibouti and Pakistan - the latter posting being responsible for Brett meeting his crew member (and wife), Lara SanPietro.
Brett has an MBA from The George Washington University and a BA in political science from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He and Lara now reside in Chicago with their dog Chewbacca Harrison Fisher and two cats, Salem and Sushi. If Brett’s not out running or training on the bike, you will likely catch him out with friends at a happy hour or sitting down to board games or just some good old fashioned D&D.
our sponsors & supporters
make an impact
Team RWB provides enriching opportunities for veterans at home in their communities, virtually through a free mobile app, and as expeditions where they take groups of members on multi-day adventures most would not take on alone. With over 100,000 members across 200 chapters in this country, they do amazing work through the efforts of nearly 1,000 volunteer leaders and less than 30 full time staff.
