26.2 Miles Is One Day. The Work Takes Years.
On November 1, 2026, five runners will take on the TCS New York City Marathon for Magic Bus USA.
They are running for kids in India whose path to a first real job starts years before the first interview. Magic Bus meets them around age 12 and stays with them into their twenties, helping them build the confidence, skills, education, and experience they need to create their own livelihood.
Marathon day may last a few hours, but the work your donation supports is built to last much longer.
$25 Supports One Young Person for a Year
The Work Starts Long Before the First Job
More than 25 years ago, Magic Bus learned that access to a job is only part of the equation.
Confidence, communication, resilience, and preparation are built much earlier. That understanding shaped an approach designed to support kids at different stages of growing up, with each one preparing them for what comes next.
Connecting Your Support to the Work
The marathon takes place in New York, while the work it helps fund happens on the ground in India.
Donations to Team Magic Bus support the people and programs that make that long-term work possible. Magic Bus USA helps connect supporters here with the communities, stories, and progress behind that work.
Meet the Runners Going 26.2 for Magic Bus
Five runners have chosen to put their miles behind this work. You can support the full Magic Bus USA team or donate directly to the runner you want to cheer across the finish line.
Drawn to the fact that we do work in his birth city, Mumbai, Abhijay has worked with Magic Bus since 2018, during which time he has visited our programs and met some of the kids and young people we support firsthand. He’s running for Team Magic Bus because he wants to help us continue to empower young people in India to learn, grow, and build bright futures for themselves and their families.
Abhijay Agarwal
Anvesh was born in India and has visited many times throughout his life. He feels lucky to give back to India in whatever way he can, especially by creating opportunities for young people to grow, dream bigger, and build futures they’re proud of. To him, running for Team Magic Bus feels like a small but meaningful way to support his personal mission.
Anvesh Cheemakurthy
Cole found Magic Bus after his girlfriend was invited to run the NYC marathon for a different charity. He was drawn to Magic Bus’s mission, as it reminded him of the idea behind the nonprofit he started in 2015 to fund kids in cancer treatment at Connecticut Children’s Hospital: give a kid a team, and you give them a reason to believe in themselves more.
Cole Stabnick
Having seen the challenges faced by children and underserved communities in Latin America, Magic Bus’s mission to help young people build confidence, life skills, and greater opportunities strongly resonated with Felipe. Running for Team Magic Bus lets Felipe combine his passion for running with a cause he deeply believes in: raising awareness and support for programs that empower young people and give them the tools to build brighter futures.
Felipe Jaramillo
Over the years, Nakita’s work in the community has centered around women, children, and families, so Magic Bus’s work with young people immediately felt meaningful to her. As a runner, soccer mom, and youth coach, she has seen how sport can build confidence, connection, and opportunity beyond the field, and she felt connected to Magic Bus’s origins in sport.
Nakita Johnson
What Are They Running Toward?
A kid staying in school when leaving feels easier.
A teenager learning how to speak up in a room that once intimidated them.
A graduate walking into an interview prepared to earn the opportunity in front of them.
A first-time earner bringing home a paycheck they worked for themselves.
Together, those moments show what the Childhood to Livelihood journey looks like in real life. More than one million young people have now been reached through the Magic Bus model.
The Finish Line Is Only the Beginning
On November 1, our runners will take on 26.2 miles for Magic Bus USA.
Support Team Magic Bus and help fund the work their race is bringing attention to.