Bladress travels 3,800 miles to raise money, stops in Seward

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Yanise Ho, 23, has lived all over the world, but this summer she experienced 3,800 miles of the U.S. in a unique way: from coast to coast on rollerblades.

The Bladress, as she calls herself, was born in Hong Kong and went to school in Italy before moving to Washington, California, Central America, New York and Canada.

She passed through Seward on her seven-month roller trip, which started March 14 in Miami, Florida, and routed her north to New York before she headed west.

“The whole mission is to go with nothing. No plans. No money,” Ho said.

Her goal was to show there are a lot of wonderful people in the world.

“I rely on the kindness of strangers every day,” she said.

Ho managed to make a lot of friends along the way, including one Seward family who took her in one night in August and showed her around town before sending her on her way toward York.

“I’ve seen nothing but good people along the way,” Ho said.

Her aim was to restore faith in humanity and get people to trust one another, “because we don’t do that anymore,” she said.

Though she kept her supplies for the trip to a minimum, she brought a cell phone and a 43-pound backpack with the basics.

Along the way, Ho promoted The Bladress Scholarship in connection with One Girl Can, which raised money for girls’ education in Kenya and Uganda with the empowering idea that “one girl can” do anything.

Online donations for the scholarship totaled $33,185, surpassing her goal of $30,000. One donor, inspired by her journey, offered to match funds dollar for dollar, according to Ho’s fundraising page on fundrazr.com.

“Education is crucial to ending the vicious cycle of poverty, child marriage and gender inequality,” she wrote. “More importantly, it provides an opportunity for girls to reach their full potential and pursue a life of their choosing.”

She wrote that she believes marriage and relationships should be based on love, yet girls in those countries are married as young as age 8 to men five times older. Pregnancy and child birth are two of the most common causes of death in girls ages 15-19 in developing nations.

“Girls are seen as a reproductive tool, a money tree and a laborer,” she wrote. “Being able to voice their opinions, let alone believing in their untapped potential, is an elusive dream.”

According to the website, $500 pays for one girl to stay in secondary school for one year, covering the cost of books, uniforms and school supplies.

$2,000 funds a girl from the start of secondary school until graduation.

$30,000 funds 60 girls all the way through school.

Ho said she chose to blade across the country because it was unique.

“I’ve never really been into biking. It’s too fast, and I wouldn’t get to stop and talk to people,” she said. “Walking was too slow. I’d never get there.”

She hit some road bumps along the way, like the time in Des Moines, Iowa, when she forgot the spacers that go in between her wheel bearings.

“I got a call from someone I met in Illinois who was driving through the area and said he would help,” she said.

Several people sent her messages, offering to take her to a skate shop and pay for new spacers.

She said she didn’t look at weather forecasts each day, but did what her intuition told her.

She wore a livetracking device so people could follow her progress on social media.

Ho said she tried to skate 20 to 30 miles each day, mostly in the afternoon.

“I get super energetic in the evening time. I usually leave around 11, but whenever my heart feels ready,” she said. “If my heart tells me not to go, I won’t go.”

Ho made it to her destination, Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 20.

emily@sewardindependent.com