In February 2012 I will be summiting Mount Kilimanjaro as a part of Big City Mountaineers Summit for Someone program.  Big City Mountaineers (BCM), a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is a recreational mentoring program for at-risk teens. The mission of BCM is to enhance the lives of under-resourced urban teens through transformative outdoor experiences. Summit For Someone is the primary fundraiser for BCM’s programs, which show teens a different perspective by taking them into wilderness areas in California, Colorado, Minnesota and the Pacific Northwest, with a one-to one ratio of adult volunteers as positive role models. The core BCM program, RELATE (Recreational Experiences Linking Adults & Teens Environmentally) takes inner city kids on week long backpacking trips. Money raised by Summit for Someone participants directly increases the number of teens we can take out each summer on RELATE backpacking trips.

I have pledged to raise $8500 for this cause and will need everyone’s help to make it happen.  All money raised goes directly to BCM and not towards the trip.  Kilimanjaro is one of the 7 Summits and the highest mountain on the African Continent.  It will be, hopefully, my second in my 7 Summits campaign.

Click here to visit my Donation Page.

Click here to buy a raffle ticket for a Trek 9.5 carbon fiber triathlon bike.

We can’t change the world all at once, but it just takes opening the eyes of a youth and the warming of their heart to a notion that there is more to life than violence and only struggle.  There is hope.