Herly Approves: How a 22-Year-Old Wrapper and His Floppy-Eared Rabbit Helped Launch a Historic Journey

Getting a Saxon roadster ready to drive 25 states in honor of the original suffragists’ 1916 drive to win women the right to vote, and also instill courage in today’s Congress to affirm Equal Rights Amendment takes more than just a mechanic and a dream. It takes a wrapper, a warehouse, a little luck — and apparently, a rabbit named Herly.

Jeryl Schriever, author of Driving the Voter for Women and the driving force behind the Golden Flyer II, had been staging the vintage Saxon out of a warehouse complex near an interstate in Florida figuring out how to change its green coat to a golden yellow—the color of the original Golden Flyer. Then, almost by accident, she discovered her vinyl wrapper practically next door.

The young man’s day job? Wrapping boats and the occasional vehicle for Florida’s sun-and-surf crowd. Restoring a century-old suffrage car destined to retrace one of America’s most audacious road trips? That was a first. But Nick Forfar was game.

The wrapping transformed the Saxon — Alex Huppé, husband of Jeryl and owner of a green Saxon — into the golden-hued Golden Flyer II, echoing the original 1916 vehicle that suffragists Alice Burke and Nell Richardson drove 10,000 miles across America to win support for women’s right to vote. 

Once the wrap was done, Jeryl ordered period-appropriate lettering for the sides: the route dates, the names, everything to evoke the spirit of that original journey. The car began to look the part.

No great adventure is complete without a mascot. For the Golden Flyer II, that role belongs to a stuffed cat — yellow-ribboned, leashed to the car so he can’t be stolen, and perfectly color-matched to the golden wrap. He rides up front, near the horn, where passengers used to sit a century ago.

The cat’s name? That’s still being debated. But the one name that stuck in the story of the car’s preparation belongs to a real, live, floppy-eared brown rabbit — Herly— who kept watch over the whole wrapping operation from his spot in the young wrapper’s shop.

Herly, it seems, was the unofficial quality inspector. And given that the Golden Flyer II is now on the road, carrying the message that the Equal Rights Amendment deserves Congressional recognition as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, it’s fair to say he did a fine job.

From the wrapping to the lettering, from the trailer prep to the stuffed mascot on a leash, every detail of the Golden Flyer II reflects the care and creativity that Jeryl and Alex and their team have poured into this mission. The ERA has been ratified by 38 states — more than enough to become the law of the land. Now Congress needs to say so.

And somewhere back in that Florida warehouse complex, Nick, the 22-year-old boat wrapper with a rabbit named Herly played his small, perfect part in making it happen.

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