Kenny Thomas – Smithers Canada
I am so proud of Kenny, I am emotional that a 14 year old boy son of Mike and Kristina in Smithers this evening has prepared a presentation for his local snowboard and skateboard shop “Rayz” to sponsor the Ramblingrat benefiting Street Kids expedition with either a snowboard or a skate board that will be used in the local community for disadvantaged kids.
Hudson Mountains
Beautiful Hudson bay mountains in the Smithers area of rural Canada. Snow every where and -9 really chilly now.
Glacier Toyota
We arrived in Smithers a small town in the north of British Columbia Saturday lunch time, Chris had called ahead from Prince George to a local newspaper and had arranged for them to meet us at Glacier Toyota dealership at 2pm.
Katimavik
Last night Pat and Keith our hosts had taken us to an art exhibition at the Two Rivers Gallery
and a lady called Nathalie Daoust and a gentleman called Ted Hiebert were displaying art work, part of the exhibition was the chance to paint yourself if you so wish with glow in the dark paint and Chris jumped at the chance to be painted up, we also met an interesting group of young people from a Youth volunteer group called Katimavik.
Prince George Newspaper
Globetrotters raising awareness and funds to help street children
Written by SCOTT STANFIELD
Citizen staff
Wednesday, 19 November 2008


Chris Burton, left, and Tim Dennis are travelling the world with a specially-outfitted vehicle to raise awareness for Street Kids International. (Citizen staff photo)
A man who is driving around the world to raise money and awareness for Street Kids International stopped in Prince George this week.
Tim Dennis of Scotland sold most of his belongings, including his house, to fund his Rambling Rat expedition, in reference to the Year of the Rat (2008)
The 35-year-old said he was inspired by Street Kids International, a Canadian-based organization that has helped upwards of two million children get off the streets in every corner of the world.
“I’ve taken two years to build up the concept,” said Dennis, who made a pit stop Tuesday in Prince George. “I’ve been doing volunteer work with youth, and I decided I’d sell my house and do this. All sorts of doors have opened since.”
His Toyota Landcruiser is literally a home on wheels. It contains a fridge and stove in the rear, a tent and bicycles on the roof and a solar panel on the hood. The front has 14 headlights.
He plans to be on the road for three years.
Before coming to Canada, Dennis drove through the United Kingdom, across Russia and around Japan. In Russia, he had several opportunities to promote the work of Street Kids International through television, newspaper and magazine interviews. In Japan, he spoke at numerous schools, including one that targets students who are excluded from mainstream education.
Aside from the kindheartedness of his gesture, Dennis’ mission is personal in nature, harkening to a childhood marked by his own difficulties in school, and by the death of his younger brother, who succumbed to Batten Disease, a rare, degenerative disorder of the nervous system.
“When I was at school I was dyslexic and I had learning problems. So I was always put down,” Dennis said. “The main overview (of the trip) is that I love putting stuff back into youth things because I can relate to that myself, and it’s the same with Chris.”
He was referring to Chris Burton, his American travelling companion, who responded to an advertisement placed by Dennis. The two men connected in Vancouver.
“I was looking specifically for somebody that had some sort of disadvantaged background, and Chris had come through family troubles and gone in the forces, and he seemed a good candidate,” Dennis said.
“I’d gone through some rough times,” said Burton, 28, whose journey will finish at the end of Dennis’ North American leg. “This sounded like something to centre me.”
Following a visit with the folks at Northern Toyota in Prince George, Dennis and Burton had their sights on the Yukon and Alaska, from where they will drive across Canada and into the U.S. Dennis will then journey into Mexico, South America, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. He also hopes to detour into Africa.
For more information, visit www.ramblingrat.com
Parkhill Transmission
Since i have left the UK i have had problems with the auto transmission overheating when I do steep prolonged climbing and the vehicle is doing slow speed and not getting enough air through the radiator to cool the oil.
Prince George
Last night we arrived in Prince George and called a gentleman called Bob Greenaway who is the executive director of Youth for christ and we were given his name to contact whilst we were in Williams lake youth club.
Bob met us in a diner motel called the Carmel and it felt really cold and it was really nice to get inside, Chris and i didn’t order food till Bob arrived as we wanted to chat to him about what we were doing for Streetkids, Bob arrived and told us how he was known in the area as “uncle Bob” he loved our mission and told us that he would buy us supper and would put us up in the hotel for the first night in town, this was really welcome as with the colder temperature now its not much fun for Chris in the front seat.
Thank you to Bob Greenaway from youth for christ for providing this very kind gesture to keep us going.
I had a lovely soak in a hot bath and chris called his girlfriend and when her granny answered she didn’t let him speak to her at first but when he said he was near to Alaska she put him through, they had a productive chat and he is settled knowing she is ok.
In the morning we drove over to Northern Toyota to meet up with Christopher Castelli who had let us arrange a press meeting at the dealership we set up camp to show off the expedition concept to two newspapers the www.pgfreepress.com who had sent a really friendly photographer called John McKenzie and we also had a reporter from the www.princegeorgecitizen.com Mr Scott Stanfield.
Northern Toyota’s Chris Castelli told us that his daughter Ivy worked for a street youth project and we may be able to visit the project center and gave us her number.
We cannot express enough thanks for Chris allowing us to fill our vehicle with diesel on the Northern Toyota account.
Thanks to www.northerntoyota.ca for sponsoring us.
We packed up at Toyota and drove to Future Cents which is the youth facility that Ivy Janot works with. here we set up camp again and spoke to a group of 14 Kids who really engaged into what we were doing and after showing them an outside demonstration we al talked about how kids live in different parts of the world and they shared with us about how they live.
Thank you to all of you at Future Cents we really had some fun and thank you for the accommodation contact. www.futurecents.ca
We were really tired now and looking forward to meeting our Coach surfing hosts who advertise free accommodation on the infamous web based travel site, Pat and Keith live just up out of town and have a wonderful home and family Keith is an art teacher and his wife teaches english and french, they have lived in France too and you can sense that they have lived in Europe with wonderfully decorated vibrant colors in their home and Keith’s artwork.
Pat cooked a really tasty roast beef and we had wine and cheese and for the first time in six months i felt that i was at home. Their son in law dave also drives the same landcruiser as me and came over to look at my vehicle, we have been made really welcome and hope to stay one more night before leaving to go north.
Huge hug and thank you to you both Pat and Keith from Prince George from the www.couchsurfing.com
Where is Tim?
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Dangriga, Belize