Relay For America’s mission is simple: uniting Americans one mile at a time. And for America’s 250th birthday, we wanted to do something special to celebrate our great nation and bring people together: a 3019 mile cross-country run with the American flag! For 20 days straight, through the day and the night, through deserts and over 12,000 foot mountains, the flag will never stop moving until it reaches Washington, DC on July 4th. There is so much today in the media that tells us all the things that are wrong with America. We hope this relay can help show all that is right with America. And that we are still capable of accomplishing big things when we’re willing to work together.

The inspiration for Relay For America came in 2024. Relay For America co-founders Joe Nail and Wyatt Moss were both chasing the same goal: 50 marathons in 50 states in less than a year. In South Carolina they ran one of those marathons together and quickly bonded over their shared faith, love of country, and desire to use running to bring people together.

That summer, Joe, an endurance athlete who competed for the military, decided to run one of his 50 marathons with the American flag and the positive response to that run inspired him to one day organize a relay across America with the flag. That flag he purchased from an Army veteran at a small town Tractor Supply in rural Texas is the same one you see flying from coast to coast today.

As America’s 250th birthday approached, Joe pitched Wyatt on the cross-country relay idea. Wyatt loved it and suggested that instead of having a small rotation of elite runners doing all the miles, they should instead open it up to as many Americans as possible. And just like that, Relay For America was born!

Most events like this are coordinated by professional, full-time staff with sponsorships in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. With limited time to plan and limited access to sponsors, Joe and Wyatt decided that this idea was so important that they would invest their life savings to make it happen. Wyatt moved in with Joe at his small studio apartment at Stanford University for the two weeks before the launch and they worked day and night to try and make the vision a reality. After putting out an initial launch video on instagram, more than 1000 runners from 45 states signed up and they started assembling a crew. Of the 17 on the crew, 14, including Joe and Wyatt, are completely volunteer and are paying their own way as we cross the country.

We didn’t originally plan to have a GoFundMe because we didn’t want it to distract from the mission, but we have been humbled by the outpouring of support and offers to help support this project financially. So we are now launching this donation page and want to share exactly what our costs are and where every dollar raised will go.

We promise to steward every dollar well and every donation goes not only towards making this year’s relay possible, but also helps enable us to ensure that Relay For America can be much more than a one-time event. With your support, we hope to make the cross-country relay an annual event, and to organize other Relays in states and communities nationwide. Thank you so much for your support. None of this would be possible without the generosity of our fellow Americans. These funds are directly deposited into the Relay for America bank account

My name is Alex Romano, and I am the Director of Operations for Relay for America. We are raising money to cover current and future costs:

$5,000 - website and technology (GPS tracking, Starlink)

$10,000 - Insurance for the event

$40,000 - videographers and our crew chief

$20,000 - vehicle rentals and maintenance

$25,000 - documentary costs for videographers and editors

$5,000 - food for crew

$5,000 - gas for vehicles

$5,000 - hotels

All donations above this amount will go straight to ensuring Relay for America can exist in following years and continue uniting Americans one mile at a time!