Bladress visits Charlotte County

Published 9:59 am Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Yanise Ho, 23, is rollerblading 6,000 miles across the United States alone with no money to advocate for love and girl power.

The bladress project, which was started by Ho at 21, was created specifically to prove the kindness of strangers.

On Tuesday, Ho’s journey brung her through Keysville where she spent the night at Sheldon’s Motel and Restaurant.

“I’m thankful for Charlotte County’s hospitality,” said Ho. “I was sitting outside in the dark, and Betty, the receptionist who’d already driven away came back to check on me.”

Ho said the receptionist told her the lights were about the go out and she would feel better if she stayed inside because sometimes unfamiliar people drive by the use the WIFI at the location.

“I was sitting on the side of the road at the intersection of business 15 and 360, hot, lost and my phone without reception,” said Ho. “a family pulled over and asked if I needed help. I told them I needed WIFI and they dropped me off at the library about two miles from where I was.”

Ho said her journey is important because it shows that the world is not just bad and dangerous.

“There’s many wonderful people in the world that we often overlook because we tend to put our guards up,” she said.

She said if everyone were able to trust and love each other a little more, the world would be a better place.

In addition to Ho’s initiative, she founded the bladress scholarship, which helps raise funds for the education of girls in Kenya and Uganda.

Ho’s journey began in Miami and by the time she reached Keysville, she had traveled over 1, 200 miles in about 67 days.

Her entire trip will span from Miami to the Wild West, then back to the East Coast, totaling over 6,000 miles.

Throughout her journey, Ho has relied completely on the goodness of strangers based on faith.

“These wonderful stories of love are often shrouded by the gloom-ridden news on crimes and disasters,” said Ho. “I believe the best of humanity also deserves to be told, shared and preserved. We must have faith because when we act on faith, a world brimming with love, care, and trust is just not a fantasy, but a reality”

Ho’s website said she did her first journey is 2016 from Savannah, Georgia to Miami, Florida, consisting of 600 miles.

“At 9, I started pondering the meaning of life. I dreamt about total freedom, imagining myself running through a wild meadow alongside scampering horses,” said Ho on her website. “At 15, a two-week trip to New Zealand with my best friend changed the course of my life. It magically healed my insomnia, and I learnt that the world was more than just the concrete jungle of Hong Kong, in which I’d spent my whole life bustling around.”

Information on Ho’s website said at 16 she studied abroad in in Rome, Italy and at 17 she started college in WAshington before moving to California at 18.

The website said at age 20, Ho embarked on a backpacking journey across Central America and Europe for six months.

She has lived in New York, Canada, and Hong Kong.