Marching to his own beat
Drum teacher walks across US to raise money for OKC nonprofit
The ground beneath Jeremy Schulz's feet literally fell out from under him as he stood on the side of a Pennsylvania highway.
This resulted in a 40-foot tumbledown the side of a cliff that left Schulz with a few scrapes and bruises and scattered gear. He scrambled to gather his belongings and climb his way back up to the road.
“My glasses were broke. ... I was bruised and banged up,” Schulz said. “But I don't know how I didn't break anything.”
This was only the beginning of his journey.
Schulz, founder of the online drum school Beats From The Core, is walking across America to raise awareness and funds for the Oklahoma City nonprofit Fight for the Forgotten.
Justin Wren, Mixed Martial
Arts champion, founded the nonprofit in 2011 to support the Pygmy people in the African Congo. In the past year, t he organization has expanded to provide online bully prevention training to 100 MMA academies across the nation.
“I wanted to take an extraordinary measure to equal donating to an extraordinary cause,” Schulz said.
Starting from the Brooklyn Bridge April 22, Schulz made his way to Niagara Falls, then back through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and arrived in Oklahoma City on Aug. 3 to take a week to rest and meet Wren in person.
The end goal is the Sundial Bridge in Redding, California, Schulz's hometown. At the end, Schulz will have walked over 3,000 miles.
The man
For most of his life, Schulz struggled with Tourette's syndrome and stuttering.
When he was 9, his mother bought him a drum set.
“I would come home, and I' d sit behind my drum set and pretend like I was the snare, and then the rest of my kit was just kids at school,” Schulz said. “And I'd be like, `Hey, how you doing?' ... (My drumset) was a place where I could communicate.”
Eventually Schulz became more interested in the musical aspect of playing. Two years after he graduated high school, he packed up and moved to Seattle to be part of the grunge scene.
He became a student at the Seattle Drum School and was eventually asked to teach.
“It was the only environment I'd ever had in my life where there was a `Yes, you can,'” Schulz said. “It was confusing because I would ask for stuff in school, like to be in band and it was `Oh, well you're in special ed, you can't do that.'”
Schulz accepted the position, and was soon one of their most successful teachers, with more than 40 students per week.
And slowly but surely, Schulz said, the style of drumming he learned, the “Steve Smith method,” a nd t hen taught at the school helped him manage his Tourette's and his stuttering.
“I'd talk to my mom and... she would say, `Whoa, man, you had two sentences that you didn't stutter,'” Schulz said.
Today, though not perfect, Schulz said he manages fairly well.
Schulz considers Steve Smith, founder of the Seattle Drum School, a mentor and someone who saw more in Schulz than he ever saw in himself.
Smith said it was simply a gut instinct when he hired Schulz on as a teacher and he “took off like a rocket.”
“What we do at the school, is we ... believe that people are capable of achieving probably more than they believe themselves, and we just work as hard as we can to convince them ,” Smith said .“And Jeremy is sort of a product of that.”
When Schulz became a part of the school, Smith said his enthusiasm for life and learning was “infectious,” and was quickly loved by everybody.
“His enthusiasm that's so sincere, almost naive in the way one can see it in a child,” Smith said. “They have this innocent enthusiasm and joy that I think we all tend to lose sight of as we grow older.”
When Schulz left Seattle, he founded the online drum school Beats From the Core. He taught online drum lessons and had teachers across the nation working for him.
Last summer, Schulz' s hometown was caught in the Carr Fire, a wildfire that spread through multiple California counties.
Schulz decided that for an entire weekend, instead of charging for his drum lessons he would send the student and their family GoFundMe links to help out those who lost everything in the fire. Many of his Beats From the Core teachers got on board, as well, and thus emerged Beats For a Cause.
The walk
Every year, Schulz decided, he would pick a cause to donate to and figure out a way to raise funds and awareness.
“I wanted to just find a way to go all across the US and shout it from every mountain top ,” Schulz said .“And so I was like ,` I should just walk across the US and raise funds.'”
When Smith first heard what Schulz was planning, his first thought was “I could never do that.”
But he wasn't surprised that Schulz would want to do something so out of the ordinary. He also said he never doubted he would go through with it.
“I guess he gets an idea in his head, he says, ` That's a good idea,' and then he just goes and does it,” Smith said. “That takes courage, and commitment and generosity.”
Every day, Schulz walks 20 miles, Google Maps leading the way. For the first 900 miles, he wore the Ultra 3.5 trail shoes and was sent a second pair that he will wear until they're worn out, too, the Ultra 4.0's.
As for other gear, Schulz wears Smartwool socks, carries a jet boil stove in his pack, a bedroll and tent, as much water and food as he can carry,
a change of clothes and survival necessities like his knife, whistle, pepper spray.
As one can imagine, it has been no easy feat.
“I'm doing this completely solo, with what's on my back,” Schulz said. “I've had to camp out in the woods, I've got taken out by a flood — half of my gear got washed away. I've been caught in thunderstorms; I've had my tent surrounded by coyotes."
Not to mention falling off a cliff.
But for Schulz, it's all been worth it to give back to a worthy cause.
Schulz hopes his journey will empower anyone who doesn' t believe in themselves—whether they' re bullied, depressed or just not confident.
“The discomfort that I feel walking is kind of equal to the discomfort of being bullied,” Schulz said. “And if a 46-year-old dude can go walk across the U.S., then we can tell these kids to build themselves up, lift weights, learn how to fight, right? Learn some sort of artistic expression that helps them.”
As he makes this journey, Schulz said he talks to anyone who will listen about why he's walking across America. First, people think he's crazy to be making the trip at all, but once they find out the cause, they immediately are onboard, he said.
Many people have shared their own stories of bullying with Schulz, and he will be compiling those into a book after the trip. He plans to write a "Good Deeds Diary," a compilation of all the random acts of kindness he received while on the trip.
When Schulz arrived in Oklahoma City, he was at the point of limping, having walked nearly 1,100 miles without more than two or three days' rest.
He was greeted by Wren and Jim Stewart, Fight for the Forgotten director. His week in Oklahoma City was spent taking i ce baths, talking to media and simply getting rest before he continues on the last phase of his trip.
The cause
Fight For the Forgotten began in 2011 when Justin Wren took a journey of faith to the Congo where he met the Mbuti Pygmy tribe. The Pygmies are what anthropologists call the most oppressed people group in the world, Wren said.
They were enslaved, sick, starving, without water and felt “forgotten.”
To Wren, they are the most bullied people in the world, which struck a chord deep inside him. He was bullied by his classmates growing up, and was even told he should kill himself by his peers.
“At 13, I started the biggest battle of my life which was against depression, suicidal ideation, even an attempt,” Wren said.
Wren became involved in wrestling as an outlet, and won the national championship his senior year of high school. After that, he began his mixed martial arts career, and has a record of 13 wins and 2 losses professionally.
Dealing with addiction and depression during this time, Wren's career wasn't fulfilling. When he came back from the Congo the first time, he knew his life was forever changed.
Today, Fight for the Forgotten has gotten the Pygmies over 3,000 acres of land back and provided dozens of water wells. Wren even lived with them for an entire year.
While the organization will continue to support the Pygmies, Wren wanted to do more for those who experience bullying here in America.
Last year, Wren developed a 12-week bullying prevention curriculum called Heroes in Waiting that is currently being used in 100 MMA academies. By the end of the year, he hopes to make that number 200.
“Most anti-bullying assemblies and prevention things, the kids fall asleep during that and they' re not engaged ,” Wren said. “And we really want to find a way to engage with them and touch their hearts.”
One of the most important things the children can learn is how to not be a silent bystander to bullying. Wren said 87% of the time a bystander stands up for the person being bullied, it shuts things down within five seconds.
Wren's hope for the curriculum is for it to be used in private and public schools across the nation, and that's what the money raised from Schulz's walk will be going towards.
“It's going to help get (the curriculum) into more martial arts academies and help develop it (for public and private schools,)” Wren said. “It's already very translatable to classroom settings for public and private schools.”
Wren said he was incredibly humbled that Schulz wanted to help raise funds for his organization.
“I understand being driven by purpose, and passion, and living for something greater than yourself,” Wren said. “And so I really respected that about Jeremy, how he was going to put it on the line, go all in for kids that really needed to have hope. And I think people can gather hope and inspiration ... and a beautiful sweet message coming from this bearded tatted up, rocker guy.”
Schulz has set a goal of raising $250,000 for Fight for the Forgotten. So far, only $3,455 has been raised through his GoFundMe.
“If I can hit my goal or get even close, the chances that that program gets out to public and private school schools are going to be much greater,” Schulz said. “That's what I want more than anything."