Yanise Ho is letting the good times roll. Since March, the 23-year-old has been on an incredible journey across America on a pair of Rollerblades.

She began her cross-country trek in Miami, Fla. on March 14. From there, she rolled on to New York and continued her quest to the West Coast. She was passing through the Burns-Hines area on Tuesday, Oct. 9, and happened upon Korina Cate who was working at the Bureau of Land Management office on the edge of town.

“I was skating uphill, and she saw me, so she came to talk to me,” Yanise said. “We actually already bid goodbye and, suddenly, there was a gust of wind that was so strong. I skated away already, but I thought it would be safer for me to backtrack and find somewhere safe to take shelter.”

Yanise reconnected with Korina who offered to help in anyway possible. In addition to buying her a cup of hot tea and a new pair of gloves, Korina gave Yanise a place to stay. Korina and her parents, Ray and Charlene Cate, hosted Yanise Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night.

On Friday, Oct. 12, Korina’s brother and sister-in-law, Ben and Savanna Cate, drove Yanise to Bend where she stayed with Hannah Williams who hails from Harney County. From Bend, Yanise will progress to her final destination, which is Portland.

Yanise maximized her time in Harney County by visiting with locals and providing presentations to children at Kids Club of Harney County and Tu-Wa-Kii Nobi (the Burns Paiute Tribe’s after-school program). Her local layover aligned well with the goals of her trip, as she turned strangers into friends and provided education for children.

When asked why she decided to embark on an adventure across America, Yanise said, “I’m doing this to show that there are a lot of good people in the world, to kind of restore faith in humanity. Everyday,

there are a lot of amazing strangers who come to show me kindness, and I want to share those kinds of positive stories with the world.”

On her website, Yanise stated that, “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!”

Her journey truly is a leap of faith, as she is traveling without any money and relying on the kindness of strangers to help her along the way. Yanise has stayed with more than 150 American families throughout the course of her coast-to-coast quest.

“Not only do I yearn to prove the kindness of people, but I also founded #TheBladress Scholarship, through the charity One Girl Can, to raise funds for girls’ education in Kenya and Uganda,” Yanise stated on her website.

Regarding #TheBladress Scholarship, Yanise said, “It’s a name that I created. It stands for a female Rollerblader, and there’s a female empowerment message behind it.”

She explained that all money raised for the scholarship will be donated to One Girl Can to support female students through secondary school. In addition to covering the cost of tuition, books, uniforms, and school supplies, the scholarship funds mentoring opportunities to help girls gain meaningful employment. So far, Yanise has raised more than $23,000, which is enough to send 49 girls to school for one year. She hopes to raise about $7,000 more to reach her $30,000 goal, which is enough to send 60 girls to school for one year.

“In Kenya and Uganda, secondary education is not free or mandatory, so a lot of people who live in the rural areas don’t have access to go to school, and their family would most likely prefer for them to either get married or go to work. So the scholarship will provide them with an opportunity to finish their education,” Yanise said.

On her website, she wrote, “Driven by poverty and dated values, 20 percent of girls in Africa are blindly married before the age of 15. Education is the crucial key to unchain the vicious cycle of poverty and certain related health issues. Education sheds light on the unlit path.”

When asked why she chose Rollerblading, Yanise said, “It’s a very unique transportation. People have done biking [and] walking, and I’m really not interested in [either] of those things. They go either too fast or too slow [or are] too bulky. Rollerblading gives me a perfect speed to stop and talk to people, and that’s the main goal —  to interact with people every, single day.” She added, “The Rollerblade becomes part of my body. I love how it feels. It represents like a commitment. You can’t just throw them [aside] like a skateboard. It takes a while to unlace everything. So, yeah, it’s a commitment.”

Yanise has rolled with the punches throughout the course of her trip.

She said, “Every day is a surprise because I never know where I’m staying or anything at all. I just kind of go and see what happens.”

Yanise will reach the end of her seven-month, 3,910-mile trek on Saturday, Oct. 20. She will arrive at Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park at 2 p.m., and she’s inviting skaters, bikers, scooter riders, and runners to meet her at the park and join her on the last three miles of her trip, as she rolls over to the Parachute Home (located at 820 NW 23rd Ave. in Portland) for an end-of-journey celebration.

For additional information, photos, and videos, visit Yanise’s website at https://yaniseho.com or follow her on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheBladress/). To donate to #TheBladress Scholarship, visit https://fundrazr.com/bladressscholarship