Meet Elijah … Member of BOTO’s Big Ride Bike Team!
Raising Awareness for Adolescent Mental Health …
and Funds for the CCBS Fire Keepers Scholarship Fund!
On September 23rd, the CCBS bike team starts their 350-mile ride from Pittsburgh PA to Washington DC. The goal is to bring awareness to mental health issues and to raise money for our Firekeepers Scholarship Fund, allowing families to access the care that their sons need.
Elijah is on the bike team and he is a part of the CCBS staff. In 2022, he joined the team as a Weekend Manager. In 2024, he took on the role of a Primary, coordinating total care for students on his team and serving as the main contact for their families.
We sat down with Elijah to learn more about his love of cycling and the upcoming ride.
Meet Elijah Smith … Member of BOTO’s Big Ride Bike Team!
When did you start biking?
I grew up in the country on 10 acres. Our nearest neighbor was a ¼ mile away. I loved the freedom of choosing different trails, hills, jumps, and I rode my bike nonstop. Later I participated in two cross-country bike trips that blew the world open for me. When I was 19, my cousin told me about a bike trip across the country that he did and asked if I wanted to join him for a ride the following year! I said YES! It sounded like a great adventure and I figured college could wait a semester. We biked 7,000 miles across the country … zig-zagging from Jacksonville to San Diego and up the coast to Seattle. I wrote in a journal every night, took pics every day and vividly remember a huge portion of the ride.
What are your favorite memories of your cross-country bike trips?
When we started, my cousin was the only person I knew, but after living with this group of people for months, I forged several lifelong friendships. I realized and appreciated that it was a social adventure as well!
At that age, I had been up and down the East Coast, but biking through other parts of the country for the first time was incredible. And when you are on a bike, you see everything up close. You can pull over to look at nature or stop to climb a mountain. It was a fabulous way to see the country. And we met incredible people. Strangers welcomed us and some even hosted nine sweaty people in their homes! The temperature went from 60° to much warmer in the southwest. We encountered some rain showers, some very windy days and in Texas, a stranger pulled over to warn us about an upcoming blizzard and gave us a place to stay!
My second cross-country bike trip was from New Jersey to South Dakota to Denver to Los Angeles! I got to take my sisters on this ride. I loved helping them, teaching them and seeing the eye-opening experiences they were having on the ride. And, we bought our bikes at Walmart for $140 to show that you could do it without expensive or professional bikes.
Those two rides changed my life. They made me realize I wanted to get out in the world and have experiences that make life colorful and vibrant.
Why did you want to join BOTO’s Big Ride?
Any time I get on a bike is a good time. Each trip is full of joy and tremendous gratitude for our country, the people on the ride and for the people we meet along the way! The opportunity to get out and ride on that scale again is exciting. And it is great to tie my love for biking to my passion for the work we do at CCBS. It’s rewarding to help kids, impacting their lives and their families. When our Executive Director, David, told me about the ride, I said, “Can I go … PLEASE?!”
Click HERE for more info about the ride and to support the ride with a donation.
“Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead
I’m so glad that we will have an expert on BOTO’s Big Ride! Let’s go!