NIKKI FARIS & TYLER CHAY

Nikki, from San Clemente, California, and Tyler, from West Linn, Oregon, are both former Division 1 athletes who met at Oregon State University, Nikki as a soccer player and Tyler as a wrestler. After graduating, they planned a trip around the world that ultimately sparked their love for travel and cultural immersion. Upon returning home, they settled into careers in commercial real estate, but still felt called to do more. 

In 2023, they went on their first volunteer trip to Kenya, where they eloped and realized that they wanted to focus more on service-based travel. A few months earlier, they completed their first marathon, and found they really enjoyed running and training together. With their athletic backgrounds and newfound love for travel and volunteer work, they searched for a way to combine these passions. 

Inspired to take a year off to travel and do just that, they accepted an invitation from some friends to go on a service trip to Ukraine as their first destination. There they spent time with frontline volunteers, refugees, orphans, and locals all throughout the country. Their stories inspired them so much that they decided to change their original plans and postpone their dream of training for ultra marathons in Argentina to instead help support and advocate for their new friends. 

Teaming up with RBO, they designed an athletic challenge for themselves to run approximately 750 miles from the Romanian border to the frontline region of Zaporizhia. They will attempt to run about a marathon per day to demonstrate their support, raise awareness and funds for those living and risking their lives everyday in Ukraine.