By Brandon HENSLEY

There was a young adults book series in the ’90s called “The Reel Kids Adventures,” where a group of teenagers would trek across different countries and tape their (mis)adventures.

Ryon Tanara, Graham Freeman and Amy Chan are now taking that concept to the extreme.

Freshly out of college, the three of them will be backpacking across multiple countries and continents to, in their words, “foster international social action through creative media, adventure travel and the sharing of real life stories.”

Through video, pictures and live blogging, the International Nomads, as they are calling themselves, will open up their followers to issues surrounding healthcare, education and business in specific areas.

“We wanted to have some purpose, some goal or some drive behind [our travel],” said Tanara.

Tanara, 21, is a Crescenta Valley High School graduate of 2007. He met his partners Freeman, 23, and Chan, 22, in college at UC Irvine. Now all three have graduated and are taking on the world.

“It was something I’ve been planning and something I really wanted to do when I graduated,” said Freeman, who is originally from South Africa. He said his experience of living in another country provided an impetus for setting out on this journey.

When the three of them began talking they realized they were entering a new world, one without a clear objective on what they wanted to do. All they knew is that they wanted to broaden their perspective.

“Once we started talking about something much more developed, more goal-oriented and focused, we started the organization,” Tanara said. “A lot of times we get caught up in the stuff going on around us and we lose sight of what’s going on in the world and I really want to gather those perspectives and bring that to light.”

The journey will begin in September. Tanara and Freeman will fly to China where they will meet up with Chan, who is currently there.

From there they will go to Thailand, Kenya, Zimbabwe, then to Europe where they will break up and seek out adventure independently for a while. Each stay in a country will take about three weeks, according to Tanara. They are expecting to be back in the U.S. around February.

They will miss holidays with their families, and they don’t have much money, but Freeman said, “We’ve been getting a lot of support from our family and friends.”

Donations can be made on the Nomad’s website and Facebook page. That is also where followers of them will be updated daily on their progress.

“As we’re experiencing it, we want everyone else to experience it,” said Tanara.     At the end of their journey, maybe they’ll have a clearer view of what they want to do in the future. Chan is interested in healthcare and Tanara is interested in continuing higher education.

But for now, the Nomads are content to act as blank canvases and take in all they will see and learn as much as possible.

“The world is a big place; you take the initiative, you go out there and do stuff that you can have an impact on,” Freeman said.

For more information on the Nomads, go to www.internationalnomads.com or facebook.com/internationalnomads.

  Brandon Hensley