Carolina Mendez, a graduate of St. Joseph’s School, Coronado High School, and UT Austin, is taking a 4,000-mile bike ride to honor her late father, Gilbert†.

Carolina signed up for Texas 4000 after her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on July 3, 2019 during her junior year in college.

Gilbert Mendez, an industrial engineer in El Paso, received treatment at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Sadly, he died on August 29, 2020 at the age of 62.

Texas 4000 is a program founded in 2004 for UT Austin students that aims to raise cancer awareness and funding by a bicycle ride each summer. Their mission is to cultivate student leaders and engage communities in the fight against cancer.

Carolina will ride 30-110 miles a day, and her ride will take 70 days. Her journey started in Lampasas, Texas, and takes her through Arizona, California, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, and back to Texas. Each rider has to raise $4,500, but Carolina’s goal is to raise $10,000 in donations.

Carolina majored in Biochemistry and plans to attend medical school after taking a gap year. Her journey has been inspired by her parents, Yolanda and Gilbert, and her brother, Alejandro.

She’s passionate about healthcare for minority populations, integrative cancer care and treatment, bioethics, cooking, painting, reading, and spending time with her friends and family.

Carolina made a stop in El Paso on June 11 during her Texas 4000 ride.

About the anticipated visit, she said, “I’ll definitely be overwhelmed with joy. I have a lot of relatives and friends there. We’ll be staying at my house. That’s going to be special.”

Gilbert Mendez

Happy Father’s Day to our fathers, stepfathers, spiritual fathers, and all the father figures in our lives, both living and gone. This Father’s Day, let us ask Saint Joseph for his intercession that all the fathers and father figures in our lives may be inspired by his holy example and strive to imitate his virtues and his zeal.

For more information about honoring a loved one, please contact Major Gifts Officer Sofía Larkin at (915) 872-8412 or slarkin@elpasodiocese.org.