Finally, I found the time to write this article after more than a month since we came home.
The idea of a climbing expedition to Mont-Blanc came to me through my good buddy Gabi, last summer, in 2008. Of course, I almost thought of it as a joke at first, but quickly realized that Gabi wasn’t kidding at all. In fact he was very serious about it. Dead serious!
But I still wasn’t sure what to say so I just said to my self “we’ll see what happens”. Time quickly went by, winter came, Christmas and New Years Eve, January, then spring…
And something interesting happened in spring, this year. I think it was March when I had the pleasure and honor to exchange a few messages on Facebook with Tom Tuohy, President of Dreams for Kids, a charity organization from Chicago, Illinois, a place where young people of all abilities are empowered to fearlessly pursue their dreams and compassionately change the world.
Dreams for Kids activities include:
- Dream Leaders- a leadership program that unites children of diverse backgrounds through community service and service learning through our After-school Clubs, In-school workshops, and Dream Leader Conferences.
- Extreme Recess!- an adaptive sports program offering children with physical and developmental disabilities the opportunity to participate in adventure activities, often for the very first time.
- Holiday for Hope- a holiday celebration that provides food, entertainment, gifts, and most of all, hope for over 2,000 children in Chicago and ten other participating countries
Dreams for Kids is rooted in the belief that every person has the ability to help make change possible. If we come together as one compassionate force and support our youth in every way, we can eliminate isolation and inspire an army of goodwill ambassadors to transform the world.
Tom told me about Holiday for Hope and how I could help out. At the same time, came to my attention the existence of a special school for kids suffering from autism, just outside the little town of Saint George, my home town. Immediately saw the opportunity to help out and decided to talk about this with Gabi and he was okay with it. We were going to, not only dedicate our ascent on Mont-Blanc to those kids, but also raise funds and donate them to the school.
Sadly, time passed by quickly and the project of raising funds and donate them before we would leave the country for the expedition was abandoned by me because we simply didn’t had the time to create a solid strategy that would get the funds.
I was thinking on creating some sort of incentive to offer people once they donate money. Something valuable, like an infomercial product or something. But as I said before, we didn’t have time to get the word out.
So, we were left with only one option: climb the mountain, and dedicate the whole expedition to those kids. And so we did. On August 27th, at 15:45 local time we reached the top of Europe at 4810m and the culmination of almost a year of planning, organizing and dreaming. You can see my personal photos taken in this expedition, on the right side of this website.
But, not everything was lost, though. You see, as I came home, started thinking on how I could turn this thing around. I just couldn’t let things go down in history this way. That’s why I decided to do everything in my power to make Holiday for Hope come alive for the first time in Romania!
In the near future, I’ll be updating you about what exactly is Holiday for Hope and how our project is doing.
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While this matter can be very difficult for most people, my belief is that there has to be a middle or common ground that we all can find. I do value that you’ve added pertinent and sound commentary here though. Thank you!