New Book Recounts Brother’s 6,000-Mile Ride Across America for Nephew with Down Syndrome

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Br. Chris Sweeney, SC, published "Ride for Reid: 6,000 Miles for Love, Faith, and Family," documenting a cross-country cycling expedition undertaken to raise awareness and support for his nephew Reid, who has Down syndrome. The book is out now through Covenant Books.

Sweeney, a member of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart for 34 years, rode from Florida’s coast to California’s redwood forests, a route the book describes as roughly six thousand miles. According to the publisher’s description, the trip included searing heat, freezing cold, mechanical breakdowns, saddle sores and a crash just miles from the finish.

Before the ride, Sweeney spent decades teaching in Catholic high schools across Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, followed by twelve years as a missionary in Mozambique, where he worked on farming projects, grant writing and feeding boarding students at his school. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of New Orleans and a master’s degree in Catholic School Leadership from the University of San Francisco.

The publisher describes the book as combining travelogue, memoir, and spiritual reflection with candid observations on faith and encounters with strangers during the journey. "Every mile reminded me that we are never truly alone, and that love is the most powerful fuel on any journey," Sweeney said, according to the announcement.

"Ride for Reid" is available through Covenant Books and major retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play and the Apple iTunes Store.

Studio CarryOnHarry sees this as part of a familiar but durable genre, the faith-driven endurance memoir, and one where the specificity of Sweeney’s own background, missionary work, decades of teaching, a family motive, gives it more grounding than most.

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