JoCo siblings complete goal set during pandemic — Bike together across Missouri

White children bike across Missouri

Four Shawnee Mission siblings, the White children, completed their pandemic goal of biking across Missouri last month. From left to right, Nachman White, Orli White, Noam White, Ben-Tzion White and adult chaperone Andy Ernstein. Photo courtesy Katie White.

Four Shawnee Mission siblings have completed a goal they set for themselves during the peak of COVID-19, when much of the world was shut down and people were stuck inside their homes for long stretches of time: to bike across the state of Missouri together.

Who are they? The siblings are the Whites — Nachman, a soon-to-be junior at Shawnee Mission South High School, Noam, a soon-to-be sophomore at the same school, along with Orli and Ben-Tzion, who are both rising eighth graders at Indian Woods Middle School

  • They say they were already a close bunch, but a 240-mile trek on two wheels seemed to bring them even closer together.

Why? The Whites’ parents began goal setting for their children at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, as a way to keep the kids active and outdoors, Katie, their mother, said.