July 2012
68 posts
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Amazing Effects from Giving to Others →
More proof that small gifts and random acts of kindness can turn into something great—especially through the power of social media.
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Mindy
This is a very special “Why I Climb” for me. I’m dedicating it to my Survivor Summit teammate, the indomitable Mindy Boyum.
Mindy is a fellow Austinite who works at LIVESTRONG as a Major Gifts Officer. I work at the University of Texas at Austin in Development, so when we met up to go for a hike a few weeks before the climb, we had a lot in common and I hoped we would click...
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Mike
This “Why I Climb” is dedicated to Mike King.
Mike is one of the founders of Survivor Summit, an organization which aims to lead cancer survivors and their supporters on life-altering journeys. The mission of this great organization is to inspire survivors, fighters, and communities to challenge the mental and physical boundaries associated with cancer.
Our climb of Kilimanjaro was...
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Scott S.
After a short hiatus, I’m back to posting on my blog and dedicating my climb to my incredible Survivor Summit teammates. This “Why I Climb” goes out to Scott Schofield.
As you may have read in my blog earlier, I was involved in a non-profit organization called Texas 4000 for Cancer, in which I rode a bicycle 4,500 miles from Texas to Alaska to spread hope, knowledge, and charity...
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Busy, Busy
So, my schedule has been a little crazy since getting back from climbing Kilimanjaro! I’ve been catching up on emails and tasks at work, welcoming guests into town, and trying to get back in the swing of things—especially blogging! I hope to write some more posts on Saturday, and take time to reflect on the important things I learned from summitting Africa’s highest peak to fight...
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Lachlan
I’m going to write this next “Why I Climb” for my Survivor Summit teammate, Lachlan Tindal.
Lachy was the only international member of our Survivor Summit team, representing the entire continent of Australia. But represent he did. He was a strong climber, a hilarious joker, and quite the runner. He blew past me with some super fancy footwork while we were on slick, muddy sets of...
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Brian
This “Why I Climb” is dedicated to my Survivor Summit teammate, Brian King.
I blogged about the King family in an earlier post, before I had the opportunity to meet our founder Mike and his brother, Brian. When we all arrived in Tanzania, Mike was there, but Brian wasn’t; he had missed his flight! Mike told us Brian would be joining us the next day, and luckily, both he and his...
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Over $230,000 Raised to Fight Cancer! →
Even though our climb of Kilimanjaro is over, my teammates and I are still taking donations for LIVESTRONG—in fact, we just hit over $230,000 today, thanks to a generous gift from Amy Bartlett’s friends and family! Click the link above to show your own support for LIVESTRONG’S incredible cancer programs and services.
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Chasse's Thoughts on Climbing Kilimanjaro
The following is Chasse Bailey-Dorton’s “Thoughts on Climbing Kilimanjaro and Cancer Survivorship.” She is one of my Survivor Summit teammates, as well as a breast cancer survivor and doctor. Read on for her poignant writing…
“From my personal experience, the similarity between climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and the experience of cancer survivorship is overwhelming.
...
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Scott A.
My next “Why I Climb” is dedicated to my Survivor Summit teammate, Scott Andringa.
Scott is a cancer survivor, and a successful lawyer who runs his own business. He also has a hobby that he’s great at: photography. He took so many incredible photos of us during the climb, and I’m really grateful I have something to look at that has a lot higher quality than images from my...
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(Raymond) Daniel
For my next “Why I Climb,” this one has to go out to Raymond Daniel Goni.
Raymond, Daniel, Raymond Daniel, RayDan, or DG is known by various monikers amongst different circles, but I just call him crazy! He became a part of our Survivor Summit team a little later in the game, and yet I honestly can’t imagine climbing Kilimanjaro without him.
Daniel was an integral part of Team...
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“All the time I was getting closer to animals and nature, and as a result, closer...”
– Jane Goodall
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Shoutout from Earth Treks →
A nice tweet from an amazing climbing organization founded by our Kilimanjaro guide, Chris Warner.
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Kilimanjaro: A Climb for Cancer →
Our guide, Chris Warner’s, trip report on our Survivor Summit expedition of Kilimanjaro.
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Caroline
My next “Why I Climb” is dedicated to my Survivor Summit teammate, Caroline Scemama.
In all aspects, Caroline is a beautiful spirit. She regularly practices yoga, and is such a peaceful, warm, and wonderful presence to be near. During the entire trip, she took time to find her words, as well as meaning in each moment. As a result, she had a way of being very eloquent and...
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Mona
Mona Patel, this “Why I Climb” is for you!
Mona is one of my Survivor Summit teammates and a fellow Yankee-turned-Austinite. She originally hails from Boston, and has traveled pretty extensively before ending up in our hipster Texas town. She works at LIVESTRONG, and her reasons for doing the climb are very personal, too: she lost her brother to cancer a number of years ago.
Mona is...
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Katie
My next “Why I Climb” is for Katie Schofield.
Katie, my fellow Survivor Summit teammate, is a thyroid cancer survivor, celebrating 30 years of NED (or “no evidence of disease”—meaning she is currently cancer-free). When she was diagnosed as a young college student, she got medicine, surgery, and a pamphlet about thyroid cancer. She was told her prognosis was good....
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Amy
This is my next “Why I Climb,” and it goes out to my Survivor Summit teammate, Amy Bartlett.
Five years ago, Amy was battling and finishing her treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I first learned about her journey from friend and fellow teammate, Kim McIntyre. And when I met Amy in person once we were in Tanzania, she taught me so much about survivorship. Two of her mantras...
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Chad
This “Why I Climb” is dedicated to my Survivor Summit teammate, Chad Oyler.
Chad works as a prosthetist, helping to design and make prostheses. He got involved with our trip to Kilimanjaro through his work with his friend and patient Mindy Boyum, an above-the-knee leg amputee, cancer survivor, and fellow Survivor Summit teammate. And while he signed up much later than most of us, he...
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Missy
Here’s a “Why I Climb” about my Survivor Summit teammate, Missy Verhaeghe.
Missy is a thyroid cancer survivor, a trail-running machine, and a dynamic spitfire of a personality.
I did just fine on the climb, but I could barely keep up with Missy, who could take off ahead of everyone like a bandit. As an All-American runner and lover of the outdoors, she would leap and bound with...
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Kim
This “Why I Climb” goes out to Kim McIntyre, one of my Survivor Summit teammates.
Kim has a heart of gold. She fundraised a crazy amount of money for LIVESTRONG in honor of her mom, Lou, who passed away several years ago after bravely fighting breast cancer. The anniversary of her mom’s death was the 2nd of July—coincidentally, this was our summit day atop Kilimanjaro,...
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Danny
Today, I climb for Danny Shoemaker, one of my Survivor Summit teammates.
A few silly things that everyone should know about Danny:
He LOVES the St. Louis Cardinals.
He has a dog named Milkshake (isn’t that a cool name for a dog?).
He was our oldest participant on the climb, but you wouldn’t know it, because he acts like a big kid.
I’ve never seen anyone look so awesome with...
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Chasse
This post is the first of my “Why I Climb” series since I’ve gotten back from the climb…
I’ve decided that I’m going to blog a little bit about each of my teammates, because after meeting them all, I truly love them for everything they have to offer. Each of them taught me something important, and for that, I am thankful.
Today, I climb for my teammate,...
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"Cancer May Leave Your Body, But It Never Leaves... →
New York Times blogger Suleika Jaouad writes about the internal conflict she’s had with the word, “survivor.” She’s adept at pointing out that her journey is very personal, and may not apply to others’ experiences with cancer. And while she navigates through some sobering feelings, she also shares how thankful she’s been for the past year: “For the first...
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Inspiring Stories All over Twitter →
Stories about NED and Survivor Summit inspire countless followers to LIVE STRONG.
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So Proud of My Teammate Amy →
News about awesome people travels pretty fast; Amy got a shoutout from Lance Armstrong for her thoughtful email this morning.
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Inspiration Comes in Two Forms →
Chris Brewer of the Lance Armstrong Foundation blogs about Survivor Summit 2012 and my teammate, Amy Bartlett.
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An Important Metaphor
My teammate, Amy Bartlett, a Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer survivor, recently likened our climb of Kilimanjaro to fighting cancer. She says, “you see, unbeknownst to me, this entire trip was a metaphor for a journey with cancer….a mountain seems impossible if you just look at the mountain (cancer). It is unfamiliar & scary territory until you get experienced guides (doctors)...
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Incredible Photos from Survivor Summit 2012 →
Photos taken by my Survivor Summit 2012 teammate, Scott Andringa, a cancer fighter and all-around awesome guy with whom I climbed Kilimanjaro.
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Travel as a Lesson →
The link above is a profound blog post from the 501 (c)(3) non-profit, Students of the World. It reminds me of an excellent lesson one often learns from traveling: “we’re so fascinated by these people from the other side of the globe but we often forget that at the core we are all the same.” Amen to that. I’ll be sure to elaborate on this lesson in an upcoming post on Elevated,...
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“You never conquer a mountain. Mountains can’t be conquered; you conquer...”
– Jim Whittaker
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Thank You from Survivor Summit →
The first year was a huge success, thanks to support from so many amazing people!
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What Compels Us to Travel? →
This blog rings so true for me right now. Ilan Stavans and Joshua Ellison write about how traveling deepens our understanding of the world, as they claim that “our wandering is meant to lead back toward ourselves. This is the paradox: we set out on adventures to gain deeper access to ourselves; we travel to transcend our own limitations. Travel should be an art through which our...
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“Why don’t you stay in the wilderness? Because that isn’t where it is at; it’s...”
– Willi Unsoeld, Spiritual Values in Wilderness. After our climb of Kilimanjaro, one of our expedition leaders, Chris Warner, referenced Unsoeld and told our team that the success of our climb will not be based on the fact that we all summitted. Rather, the true measure of success will be rooted in... 