Runner on pace for 'Feat of Change' Former gang member, running across country,stops in Woodbridge BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer KATHY CHANG Gabriel Ramos, 25, takes off to Princeton after making a pit stop in Woodbridge on May 8 and May 9. On April 29, Ramos departed Montauk State Park in Long Island, N.Y., on his six-month trek across 14 states and 152 cities crossing approximately 3,000 miles, which he has called the "Feat of Change" movement. WOODBRIDGE - With only two pairs of running sneakers and a minivan nicknamed "Big Red," Gabriel Ramos set on a personal cross-country journey to inspire youths to boldly take on their dreams and make them into realities. On April 29, Ramos, 25, departed Montauk State Park in Long Island, N.Y., on his six-month trek across 14 states and 152 cities, crossing approximately 3,000 miles on foot. Calling it the "Feat of Change" movement, Ramos is forming the movement as he travels from city to city and would like to make presentations about his feat in various churches across the country. "I want people to know that whatever it is that they aspire to do, they are the one to do it," said Ramos, who will run on average 20 to 40 miles a day, six days a week. "I want people to have their own feats of change and talk about it." Ramos, originally from Oakland, Calif., and his logistical manager and high school friend, Mike Smith, made a pit stop in Woodbridge on May 8 and May 9. "This has been a dream of mine for a really long time," said Ramos, who made his definitive decision to run across country on Dec. 1, 2001. "I just have a passion for running." Ramos has completed the San Francisco Chronicle Marathon in 1999, 2000 and 2003, the California International Marathon in 2001, 2002 and 2003, and the Redwood Marathon in 2004. However, Ramos hit bumps in his quest to reach his goal. "We were dancing around ideas on how we were going to make this happen," he said. "Our take-off date was May 1, 2005, with a large kickoff event trying to raise $300,000. Two weeks before, I had to make the executive decision to cancel and not go through with my quest." Ramos fell into a state of depression. "It was a very difficult time for me," he said. "I poured everything I had into my dream. I even stopped working at one point and lived off of credit cards just to put time into my dream. When it failed, it hurt me emotionally. For two years, I was walking like a zombie and just going through the motions." Until Sunday, March 25, 2007. "My younger sister, her friend and I went down to Florida for a conference," said Ramos. "It was late at night, when my sister said to me she had to be brutally honest with me. She said, 'For the last two years of your life, I have been literally disappointed in you, and your family and friends have been also.'" Ramos took his sister's comments to heart. "I realized that I had given up on myself," he said. "We were supposed to fly back to California the next day. I had stayed up all night with my sister's comments reverberating over and over again in my head. They were very clear - this man that I was for the last two years was not me." At 3 a.m. on March 26, Ramos decided he was going to make his lifelong dream happen. "I was looking at my checking account and calling all my friends around the country," he said. "I was going to drop my sister and her friend off at the airport and take a train to New York and run home. I just had reached that pinnacle moment, and I was ready. I called my business partner, and he said to give it another month, and that's when we started planning to make this happen." Ramos started physically preparing for his trek across the country with 20-mile runs six days a week. "I talked to others like Steve Bethune who ran across the country last year [to raise money for the American Heart Association]," Ramos said. "He had nutritional supplements left from his run and gave them to me. They mostly gave me advice on hotel stays and not to train as hard before my journey. Let the journey be my training." Ramos said The Bassett House in East Hampton, N.Y.; the Hyatt Regency Wind Watch in Hauppauge, N.Y.; the Radisson Hotel MacArthur Airport in Holtsville, N.Y.; and the Motor Inn in Jericho, N.Y., have all donated a room to him during his run across the country. Ramos said his trek so far has been good with just a little bump in the road in New York City. "I was not allowed to run on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the Goethals Bridge and I was escorted by police," said Ramos. "We just ended up driving over the bridges." Among the places that Ramos will visit along the way is Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg on May 18, where a 23-year-old Virginia Tech senior shot to death 32 fellow students and faculty members on April 16 before killing himself. Ramos was born in Tonala, Jalicico, in Mexico in 1982 and moved to the United States in 1987. When Ramos was younger, he excelled in academics and athletics; however, the loneliness he felt remained constant and his desire for acknowledgment and respect took over, which led him to join a gang. At the same time, he had an opportunity to work with the Challenge Day Organization, which is a nonprofit organization to help stop the violence and alienation that youths face every day. In his senior year of high school, Ramos was featured in the Emmy Award-winning documentary "Teen Files: Surviving High School," which was produced by Arnold Shapiro and hosted by Leeza Gibbons. The Challenge Day organization, which is led by founders Rich and Yvonne St. John-Dutra, provided Ramos with the tools he would need to access a future of possibility without limitations. For the first time, Ramos realized that not only was he dragging himself down as a gang member, but that his family and community had also suffered with his choice. Ramos saw the opportunity to create a world of loving community through the "act of being the change" as taught by Rich and Yvonne. Ramos has served on the national board of directors for the organization for five years. Ramos said this journey is not only personal, but also spiritual. "I am blessed at this moment and at a peace of mind," Ramos said. "There was no way we could have planned this, but only by the hand of God." After a hearty meal at the township's Reo Diner - an omelette with toasted wheat bread on the side, Ramos' next stop was Princeton. He headed south on Route 1 before changing to Route 27 toward Princeton for a 20-mile run. Ramos is expected to finish his trek Oct. 24 when his run takes him into San Francisco. For more information about his journey, visit www.featofchange.com.