The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Cyclist rides 3,100 miles to help foster kids
Planning transition house for those aging out of foster system
It all started when foster kid Noah Ehlert got his very first bike at age 13.
Decades later, through sunshine and freezing temperatures, rain, hail and dust storms, Ehlert rode his bicycle from California to Florida with one thing on his mind: Children living in foster care.
The 3,100-mile bike trekin early 2020 was four years in the planning. He documented it in his two-hour film, “Discover Your Path Tour, A Journey To Inspire.”
The two-hour film includes drone shots, heart-to-heart conversations with participants in the foster care system, as well as those that work with the children, and conversations with Ehlert. Film proceeds will go towards creating a transitional living program for youth aging out of the foster care system called the Discover Your Path House, planned for Guilford, but for youths from across the state.
Ehlert is passionate about this issue. Growing up in Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Florida, he was one of those children.
Born in Wisconsin to a 15-yearold girl, Ehlert “bounced around a lot” until he was 18.
“Looking at my life now, as a 42-year-old, and I have three kids of my own, I never saw this as a possibility for my life to turn out
like this,” said the Guilford resident. “It really seemed like a long shot.
“I really wanted to find a way to give back and maybe give back and be a voice for the 11-year-old kid that was me living in a group home and runaway and youth shelter,” he said.
Included in the documentary is footage from the Guilford-based Wishing Wheels Holiday Bike Drive, which has been delivering bikes to children in need since 2016.
“The thing that I would want to instill in them is that they’re going to have the same opportunity to give back to somebody else one day,” Ehlert said, addressing the bike drive participants in the documentary.
“One day they are going to find their footing, they’re going to find their way and they are going to be able to return the favor,” he said.
“That really is what it is to me, is just making it real — we know things are tough right now, but with this bike we hope that we can change just one aspect of your life and we hope that that change could just keep things going for you,” he said.
Jumping on a bike and taking off is almost second nature to Ehlert. It was a life-changing event being gifted a bike at 13, after living a group home.
“That kind of gave me a direction, so I knew that biking was something I wanted to do to help raise awareness,” Ehlert recalled.
“It definitely affected my confidence and it gave me an outlet,” he said. “Instead of getting in trouble, I would just ride my bike all the time.”
At 14, he entered a bike race and won. Over the years he continued to win races, signing on with a sponsor at 15.
“It was a very serious sport for me,” Ehlert recalls.
So, getting back on a bike for a cause that he is passionate about was second nature to Ehlert.
He was accompanied, along the way, by Tra Dion, who rode and did camera work, and Victor Kalogiannis and Graham Nolte, both of whom were behind the camera.
In addition, many people joined in for shorter rides.
His nine-week journey took him to 14 group homes where he was able to connect with staff and residents.
“I just talked to kids about overcoming adversity and I wanted to let them know that the struggles that they were going through, right then, that they wouldn’t last forever because I once went through them and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
Amy Manning, community liaison at Family Resources in St. Petersburg, Fla., said Ehlert’s personal visits made an impact.
“He was looking a kid in the eye and saying, ‘I know, I’ve been there,’” she said.
“I know in our St. Pete’s shelter that was a big thing for him to be able to sit in a chair in the shelter that he stayed in and say, ‘I stayed in that room and this is where I am today,’ and I think that made a big impression on the youth that we serve,” she said.
At one point in the documentary, a teary Ehlert laments that with the onset of COVID-19 some of these visits would be have to be canceled and the trip would change.
“Just knowing that my family’s not going to be able to be at the finish line,” he said, facing the reality of the pandemic.
“And now knowing that all the events need to be canceled for obvious reasons and there’s less than 300 miles left and I have to play it by ear if I’ll be able to actually visit these last six shelters that I’m supposed to visit and we have to keep the kids safe,” he said. “So, I’m just going to try to carry on.”
Biking 50-75 miles a day, Ehlert’s bike tour ended at Family Resources Safe Place to Be in St. Petersburg, Fla., the group home Ehlert lived when he was 11.
“I’ve been doing this work, specifically with runaway and homeless youth and children in the child welfare system since 1998 and one thing we don’t every expect or count on or need is to know what happens to individual kids that we help,” said John Robertson, membership services director for Florida Network of Youth and Family Services.
“So, I said from the day I met Noah, ‘You’re a time capsule,’” he said. “There’s no way that something like this is going to happen again, I think, in my career.
“To have a former client show up, knocking on the door,” he said. “It’s almost like every youth care worker’s fantasy, ‘Maybe they’ll come back and thank me someday.’”
Ehlert’s life has changed dramatically since those days in foster care.
In 2015, Ehlert and his wife, Julianna, moved to Guilford. They are raising their three children, Avery, 8; Baidis, 4; and Bennett, 2.
Together, the husbandand-wife team make up Tiny Human Photography, focusing on wedding photography.
It is Ehlert’s hope that the transitional living home can be built in Guilford. He said it is the perfect place to raise his family and also the perfect place to continue to his mission of helping children in need.
“I feel that it has all the qualities to help get a lot of these young adults the support that really need,” he said.
“When you come from a place where you are rejected and neglected by the people that, are inherently supposed to care for you, like your biological parents, when that doesn’t happen you rely on friends, community, neighbors, to somehow show you that support and care so you can build confidence in yourself,” Ehlert said.
It is this transitional living space that Ehlert hopes to make these young adults feel safe and see hope in the future.
“I really hope that we can get some kids in the Discover Your Path house that have aged out or are aging out of foster care and just really help them find the motivation they need to live the life that they can live,” Ehlert said, adding that the youths will come from all over the state.
Amy Manning applauded Ehlert on reaching out and spreading a message of hope.
“It was just really great to see somebody come back who is thriving and just had such a heart to help kids that were growing in a situation similar to the way that he grew up,” said Manning, community liaison for Family Resources in St. Petersburg.
“His positivity and his heart for youth is amazing,” she said.
Robertson commended Ehlert’s effort to make a difference for young adults.
“The group of people he’s talking about haven’t done anything wrong, maybe ever,” Robertson said. “Their issue is that they don’t have what so many of us had after high school, which was a parental safety net or a family network.”
What would Ehlert say to community members who are reticent about welcoming these young adults as their neighbor?
“I am these kids and I live here,” he said.
“I’m getting all worked up here, now,” Ehlert said. “To all the people that want to say, ‘We don’t want those kids here,’ those kids are your best chance at a good, strong community.”
“They want to help and give back more than any other kid I have met and I am incredibly passionate it,” he said. “I will prove to them, they are not here to cause trouble, they’re here to feel safe and secure and I want the community to show them that this is the place they can do that.”
The two-hour film is available for rental or purchase at vimeo.com/ondemand/discoveryourpathtour.
For information on Discover Your Path, contact Ehlert at 646-232-4645 or email discoveryourpathtour@gmail.com; visit discoveryourpathinc.org.
STATE DISTRIBUTION: A strict limit of 4 State Restricted Bank Rolls per CT resident has been imposed
CONNECTICUT - “It’s a miracle these State Restricted Bank Rolls even exist. That’s why Hotline Operators are bracing for the flood of calls,” said Laura Lynne, U.S. Coin and Currency Treasurer for the National Mint and Treasury.
For the next 2 days the last remaining State of Connecticut Restricted Bank Rolls loaded with rarely seen
U.S. Gov’t issued Silver Walking Liberties are actually being handed over to Connecticut residents who call the National TollFree Hotlines listed in today’s newspaper publication.
“I recently spoke with a retired Treasurer of the United States of America who said ‘In all my years as Treasurer I’ve only ever seen a handful of these rarely seen Silver Walking Liberties issued by the U.S. Gov’t back in the early 1900’s. But to actually find them sealed away in State Restricted Bank Rolls still in pristine condition is like finding buried treasure. So anyone lucky enough to get their hands on these Bank Rolls had better hold on to them,’” Lynne said.
“Now that the State of Connecticut Restricted Bank Rolls are being offered up we won’t be surprised if thousands of Connecticut residents claim the maximum limit allowed of 4 Bank Rolls per resident before they’re all gone,” said Lynne.
“That’s because the dates and mint marks of the U.S. Gov’t issued Silver Walking Liberty Half Dollars sealed away inside the State of Connecticut Restricted Bank Rolls have never been searched. But, we do know that some of these coins date clear back to the early 1900’s and are worth up to 100 times their face value, so there is no telling what Connecticut residents will find until they sort through all the coins,” Lynne went on to say.
And here’s the best part. If you are a resident of the state of Connecticut you cover only the $39 per coin state minimum set by the National Mint and Treasury, that’s fifteen rarely seen U.S. Gov’t issued Silver Walking Liberties worth up to 100 times their face value for just $585 which is a real steal because non state residents must pay $118 per coin which totals $1,770 if any coins remain after the 2-day deadline.
The only thing Connecticut residents need to do is call the National TollFree Hotlines printed in today’s newspaper publication before the 2-day order deadline ends.
“Rarely seen U.S. Gov’t issued silver coins like these are highly sought after, but we’ve never seen anything like this before. According to The Official Red Book, a Guide Book of United States Coins many Silver Walking Liberty Half Dollars are now worth $115 - $825 each in collector value,” Lynne said.
“So just imagine how much these last remaining, unsearched State of Connecticut Restricted Bank Rolls could be worth someday. Remember, these are not ordinary coins – these rarely seen coins date clear back to the early 1900’s. In fact, these coins have been forever retired by the U.S. Gov’t, and you can’t get them rolled this way anywhere because these are the only State Restricted Bank Rolls known to exist,” said Lynne.
“We’re guessing thousands of Connecticut residents will be taking the maximum limit of 4 Bank Rolls because they make such amazing gifts for any occasion for children, parents, grandparents, friends and loved ones,” Lynne continued.
“We know the phones will be ringing off the hook. That’s why hundreds of Hotline Operators are standing by to answer the phones beginning at 8:30am this morning. We’re going to do our best, but with just 2 days to answer all the calls it won’t be easy. So make sure to tell everyone to keep calling if all lines are busy. We’ll do our best to answer them all,” Lynne said.
“That’s why the National Mint and
Treasury set up the National TollFree Hotlines in order to make sure Connecticut residents get the State Restricted Bank Rolls before they’re all
gone,” she said.
The only thing readers of today’s newspaper publication need to do is make sure they are a resident of the
state of Connecticut and call the National Toll-Free Hotlines before the 2-day deadline ends midnight tomorrow.
The U.S. stood Sunday at the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus.
A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost was about 498,000 — roughly the population of Kansas City, Mo., and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled by Johns Hopkins University surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined.
“It’s nothing like we have ever been through in the last 102 years, since the 1918 influenza pandemic,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The U.S. virus death toll reached 400,000 on Jan. 19 in the waning hours in office for President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis was judged by public health experts to be a singular failure.
The first known deaths from the virus in the U.S. happened in early February 2020, both of them in Santa Clara County, Calif. It took four months to reach the first 100,000 dead. The toll hit 200,000 deaths in September and 300,000 in December. Then it took just over a month to go from 300,000 to 400,000 and about two months to climb from 400,000 to the brink of 500,000.
Joyce Willis of Las Vegas is among the countless Americans who lost family members during the pandemic. Her husband, Anthony Willis, died Dec. 28, followed by her mother-in-law in early January.
There were anxious calls from the ICU when her husband was hospitalized. She was unable to see him before he died because she, too, had the virus and could not visit.
“They are gone. Your loved one is gone, but you are still alive,” Willis said. “It’s like you still have to get up every morning. You have to take care of your kids and make a living. There is no way around it. You just have to move on.”
Then came a nightmare scenario of caring for her father-in-law while dealing with grief, arranging funerals, paying bills, helping her children navigate online school and figuring out how to go back to work as an occupational therapist.
Her father-in-law, a Vietnam veteran, also contracted the virus. He also suffered from respiratory issues and died on Feb. 8. The family isn’t sure if COVID-19 contributed to his death.
“Some days I feel OK and other days I feel like I’m strong and I can do this,“she said. “And then other days it just hits me. My whole world is turned upside-down.”
The global death toll was approaching 2.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins.
While the count is based on figures supplied by government agencies around the world, the real death toll is believed to be significantly higher, in part because of inadequate testing and cases inaccurately attributed to other causes early on.
Despite efforts to administer coronavirus vaccines, a widely cited model by the University of Washington projects the U.S. death toll will surpass 589,000 by June 1.
“People will be talking about this decades and decades and decades from now,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”