Peddlin' awareness
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on November 21, 2016 9:09 AM
News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Christopher Sholes with his pitbull Shadow and bike that he has used to travel from Texas to Goldsboro in front of The Well Traveled Beer store on Wednesday evening. Sholes has plans to bike with his dogs all the way to Standing Rock, North Dakota where he will volunteer his services in pipeline protest efforts there.
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Shadow, left and Calypso, both pit bull mixes, rest in the bike trailer attacked to the bike Christoper Sholes will be using for his journey to Standing Rock, North Dakota on Wednesday evening at Center St.
There is no calculating how many people might have already seen the cardboard sign wrapped around the back of Christopher Sholes' bicycle.
Fewer still might have gotten the message.
Sholes' journey has taken him from the depths of southern-Texas north to the Rust Belt, and back down south by way of North Carolina.
The sign reads, "Rode here from Texas, Riding for pit bull rescue and suicide prevention. Anything helps. Be Blessed!"
Sholes has slogged his way across the country on a zig-zag path of thousands of miles hoping to draw attention to the two causes near and dear to him.
Having attempted suicide himself several times, Sholes said his 1-year-old pit bull, Shadow, saved him. In effect, they rescued each other.
"He adopted me out of a gas station parking lot in Waco, Texas," Sholes said.
People who attempt suicide or battle depression are often stigmatized for it. And so too are pit bulls -- he said the breed gets a bad rap when all they really need is a little love.
Starting out in Waco, Sholes set his sights on Ohio where he planned to help a friend build a farm house. He cycled first to northern Texas, hitched a ride to Indiana, then pedaled on to eastern Ohio.
With the house built, Sholes caught a ride from Ohio to Pittsburgh, then steered his bicycle -- now with two pit bulls in tow in the wagon behind him -- down to Wilmington. From there he cycled northwest.
On Wednesday, Sholes' journey led him into downtown Goldsboro.
He said he chose to raise awareness about pit bull rescue because Shadow rescued him -- the lovable companion allowed him to get out of his own head and to no longer contemplate killing himself despite his past attempts at suicide.
"He was shriveled up and dying -- he couldn't have been more than a week from fading away," Sholes said.
When Sholes was in Ohio, he picked up his second furry-friend to tag along for the ride -- a 3-year-old pit bull named Calypso -- given to his friend by a woman who could no longer care for her. The friend then gave the dog to Sholes to accompany him on his journey.
In total, Sholes estimates he has biked more than 1,500 miles since his journey began in August.
Along the way, Shadow and Calypso have inspired Sholes to show people that pit bulls aren't bad dogs, they simply get a bad reputation and sometimes they just need a little love.
So do people on the brink of suicide, he said.
"It's not even depression. It's just, you see ill in the world so much coming out of otherwise good people (who) are just operating out of fear," Sholes said. "I want to try and help people to communicate through that fear instead of hiding from it and being mired down in it."
Sholes said his journey makes him feel as though he has a purpose of service, one which he has sought his entire life, to help other people not harm themselves and to help change people's view of pit bulls at the same time.
"I've been trying to be the hub of the wheel my whole life -- be the guy in the middle that's like, 'Look, I understand what you're thinking or feeling, and I understand what they're thinking or feeling, too, and I'm trying to hold us all together,'" Sholes said.
"And that gets really taxing. That's a reason I've attempted suicide a couple times."
Growing up in the south showed Sholes a regimented world that resulted in everyone doing the same thing.
"And everyone being miserable doing it," he said.
For his entire life, he has sought his own answers to questions that other people have been unable to answer for him.
Now, with his journey -- which is set to end in Standing Rock, North Dakota -- Sholes has found answers to his burning questions.
"No one would answer those questions for me, so I had to find my own answers," Sholes said. "I'm really pleased with the answers that I've found. They don't always make sense, but life doesn't always make sense."
Throughout his journey, Sholes said he has "stealth-camped," often crashing in open fields and parks under the open sky.
Sholes said he was planning to leave Goldsboro Saturday and catch a ride to Cumberland, Maryland, before traveling back to Ohio and dropping Shadow and Calypso off at his friend's farm.
From there, he will go to Standing Rock to support the Native American tribe the Standing Rock Sioux in their protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
After that, Sholes plans to bike the Lower 48 -- the contiguous U.S. -- with his dogs in tow.
When he has pedaled his last mile, Sholes hopes to have raised enough money through his bicycling efforts to become a dog trainer and to open his own pit bull rescue farm.
His awareness efforts were designated officially as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization -- Riding for Change -- to which people can donate online if they so choose.
"I want to work with therapy groups and get with mental health professionals to not only have a pit bull rescue place, but to be able to bring people in that have manageable problems -- folks like myself that just need a hand up," Sholes said.
People give him cash all the time. About half of it he spends on himself and his dogs; the other half he uses to reach out to others, those he finds are "good people," and to buy them food.
"And if you need a beer, yeah, I'll get you a beer. If you're square and respectful -- whatever man, hit bottom however you have to."
Sholes said that sometimes the best way to help somebody is to help them hit bottom in a manageable way, instead of being lost and scared and alone with absolutely no understanding.
"And that's where so many people are."