Ryan Vezina of Chaos and Kindness Bikes Length of New Hampshire on Tandem Bike for Mental Health Awareness

When Ryan Vezina of Laconia and Manchester isn't designing clothing for his brand Chaos and Kindness, he's filming a segment for his weekly television show with the same name, filming a Recycled Percussion show or attending a Facebook Live event. His latest feat was trying to break the world record of visiting the New 7 Wonders of the World in six days. "I recently visited all 7 Wonders of the World to try to break the world record, but my visas were not processed in time …" Vezina said. "… I got it done in 8.5 days which was insane." Although he didn't break the world record, he says next time he will do this slower. "I came to realize that meeting the people was a life lesson for me." The Sentinel caught up with Ryan Vezina to talk about his latest trip: a tandem bike ride from the northernmost part of New Hampshire all the way to the southern border in four days. Here is an excerpt of the conversation: V.C.: Hi Ryan! How did you decide to bike the length of New Hampshire on a tandem bike and invite strangers to ride with you? R.V.: We love to do things that create awareness for mental health and that was the structure of it for me. I wanted to do something with other people who I could interact with during the trip … V.C.: When did you start, when did you finish and how many folks rode with you? R.V.: I started on July 28 and got back on July 31. It took me four days to ride 250 miles. There were 38 riders along the way, some were total strangers. I didn't have to go door to door to find people. We got such good coverage for our TV show "Chaos and Kindness" and "Recycled Percussion" that there were people waiting at the Canada border and all along the route. I started in … Pittsburg and we ended in Nashua at Jordan's Furniture. V.C.: What was the age range of the riders? R.V.: My youngest rider was an 11-year-old girl who rode eight miles with me. The oldest rider was my mother who is 67 and she rode with me in the pouring rain. V.C.: Did you know many of the riders? R.V.: Most of them were strangers to me but they know me from our TV show. A gentleman named Bob rode with me, and he had one finger on each hand and one toe on each foot, so it was difficult for him … He was able to trust me on a tandem bike, (and) he was a total stranger. He had an operation done on his heart in February and they told him not to do anything strenuous, but he chose to hop on the bike and rode about six miles. I had a 36-year-old man with Down syndrome (who) rode 28 miles with me. He kept me going and said, "Keep going, don't give up!" over and over again. He was pretty inspiring. V.C.: You said you were trying to raise awareness about mental health on this ride. Tell me more. R.V.: We did a promotion where if you spent $100 on the Chaos and Kindness Facebook Live, you would get a call from me. I made calls to fans and customers and one of them was to Steve Belair. He admitted that he has severe PTSD, depression, anxiety and he overcame addiction. He said he's lost the trust of everyone in his life and went to prison. He's been trying to turn it around. He never leaves his house; he doesn't have one friend. I told him to "Take a leap and come out to our show. Do one thing, anything!" He showed up at the store (in Laconia) and I said, "Holy shit, you left your house." … He came to our show and stayed in touch with me and said that one conversation changed his life. I thought if I could do this with one person, I could make a difference in other people's lives — two therapy chairs on wheels. It was a way to get people out of their comfort zone. … I would encourage people to talk about their mental health problems on the bike. I was doing a Facebook Live for the entirety of my ride. Really powerful moments on that bike ride. So many people were happy, feeling comfortable talking to the world about the problems they had. V.C.: Your television show "Chaos and Kindness" airs on Saturday nights at 7 p.m. on ABC WMUR News 9. R.V.: My cousin Justin and I self-produce our TV show "Chaos and Kindness." Since 2017 we've made over 120 episodes, and we've won over 30 Emmy Awards! The premise is to have fun, do crazy things, live your life and in the process show kindness to everyone you meet. We've helped people who have cancer, worked on hurricane relief efforts and brought people to Disney. We got picked up on a streaming app, Very Local, which is free. … We are also on YouTube. V.C.: You said Facebook Live is your biggest audience. R.V.: Our biggest following is on Facebook Live with Recycled Percussion. We … get over 1,000 people watching at one time! V.C.: So cool! What exactly is Recycled Percussion? R.V.: A performance group that makes music in creative ways. We became famous when we came in third on America's Got Talent in 2009. We had our own headline shows on the Las Vegas strip for 10 years. … Our show is an amazing variety show. It's me and Justin and we hire people to perform with us. We have Davin Cox who has cerebral palsy and Jimmy Luv who has Williams Syndrome. … They've been in the show for six years. I've been friends with Davin since we were seven years old. I love seeing what they are capable of. V.C.: Geographically, what did you learn about the state during the ride? R.V.: Northern New Hampshire has a lot of hills! I felt like I was up north for most of it. I only made 42 miles the first day and then I made 80 the next day. It was brutal heat, like 88 degrees. It's a beautiful and diverse state with the kindest people. Something to offer everyone: lakes, rivers, ocean and it's right next to Boston. I ended up having a lot of volunteers who rode near us. They brought us water, Gatorade, etc. … Everything I needed was provided by total strangers. V.C.: What was one thing you learned on this trip? R.V.: Everyone had some kind of mental health story. … This trip gave people the liberty to talk to someone about things going on in their lives. It's healthy to talk and it's ok to cry. A lot of people broke down at the finish line. I had three people … telling me they were on the verge of committing suicide and something we did with Chaos and Kindness or Recycled Percussion saved their life. That was the sole purpose of doing this! V.C.: Which one rider would you like to mention? R.V.: My final rider was Steve Belair who I told you about earlier. He was a completely different person before this mission. Steve never in a million years would do this. He felt that he wanted to help others and that is why he did it — to save other people. After we pulled into the finish at Jordan's Furniture in the pouring rain, people shared stories with him, and they thanked him and befriended him. He said he was so grateful that he was able to help so many people. V.C.: You used to have a Chaos and Kindness store in Keene. What do you sell? R.V.: We developed a clothing brand — or a movement — and I make a lot of the designs. We used to have a store in Keene but we consolidated since we're a small company. Now we have one main store at The CAKE, a theater we own in Laconia. We are also in the Manchester Mall of NH but most of our sales are online. We sell products with purpose like hoodies which promote love, positivity and mental health awareness. We wanted to make it like a family reunion every time you walk into a store or an event. So many people have made friends through us, fans of the TV show, the clothing or the crazy stunts we do. V.C.: Thanks for this great conversation, Ryan. Do you have any closing thoughts? R.V.: I just want to encourage people to speak up about their mental health struggles. There are people around you every day and you don't know what they are going through. I want to encourage people to speak up, use your personality and your unique talents to put good things out in the world … We need more love. Whatever you want to do, remember you have the power to do that. For more information, visit Recycled Percussion and Chaos and Kindness on Facebook and visit www.chaosandkindness.com