Climbing Kili for Diabetes Research

Moun­tain Mad­ness has a long his­to­ry of work­ing with var­i­ous spe­cial pop­u­la­tions, donat­ing trips for fundrais­ing events, and work­ing with a vari­ety of relief agen­cies, con­ser­va­tion groups, and NGOs that are work­ing to improve the liv­ing con­di­tions of the peo­ple in many of the places we travel.

But, we’re equal­ly excit­ed when our team mem­bers ral­ly fundrais­ing efforts through a trip with Moun­tain Mad­ness. Here’s a great exam­ple of one of the many ways our guests use their pas­sion to raise mon­ey for a wor­thy cause. Father and son climbers Matthew and Ryan will be join­ing Moun­tain Mad­ness on a Mt. Kil­i­man­jaro climb to raise mon­ey for the Juve­nile Dia­betes Research Foun­da­tion (JDRF) in Sep­tem­ber. We wish them suc­cess on the climb and with their fundrais­ing! To pro­mote their effort, they have issued the fol­low­ing press release with local papers, mag­a­zines and TV sta­tions in Bal­ti­more, MD:

Matthew and Ryan Weir

“A Bal­ti­more father and son will take on an expe­di­tion of a life­time Sept. 2 — 16 to climb Mt. Kil­i­man­jaro in Arusha, Tan­za­nia, and to raise mon­ey for the Juve­nile Dia­betes Research Foun­da­tion (JDRF), a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to find­ing a cure for dia­betes and its com­pli­ca­tions through the sup­port of research.

“Matthew R. Weir, M.D., 57, and his son M. Ryan Weir, Jr., 25, are mak­ing this ​“buck­et list” trek to climb the tallest peak in Africa. For every foot they climb, they hope to raise one dol­lar towards research for the Mary­land chap­ter of JDRF. Dubbed ​“Search­ing for A Cure Atop Mt. Kil­i­man­jaro” the 19,341-foot ascent is an extreme­ly chal­leng­ing moun­tain climb with diverse weath­er con­di­tions vary­ing from trop­i­cal forests to glacial fields.

“Both men decid­ed this adven­ture need­ed an addi­tion­al chal­lenge- to peo­ple in Mary­land to get out and fund raise. ​“I want­ed our trek make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of oth­ers by rais­ing mon­ey and aware­ness for a dis­ease that has affect­ed many close friends and col­leagues,” said Ryan Weir, a busi­ness bank­ing offi­cer for M&T Bank in Towson. 

” ​‘Non-prof­its have faced sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial chal­lenges over the past few years. Every day I see the patients with dia­betes and rec­og­nize how dev­as­tat­ing this dis­ease can be,’ said Dr. Weir, Direc­tor of the Divi­sion of Nephrol­o­gy at Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land School of Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land Med­ical Cen­ter. Dr. Weir does research and cares for patients with dia­bet­ic kid­ney dis­ease and treats oth­ers who require kid­ney and/​or pan­creas transplants.

Mt. Kil­i­man­jaro

“The two began their fundrais­ing cam­paign through a series of emails to friends and fam­i­ly and it has now gone viral through Face­book and Twit­ter. So far, they have reached rough­ly five per­cent of their goal. They plan to give dai­ly updates of their adven­tur­ous climb via Twit­ter at www​.twit​ter​.com/ cureatopkili. 

“M&T Bank will make a $1,000 dona­tion to JDRF in sup­port of the Weirs’ fundrais­ing effort. 

” ​‘We are proud to sup­port Ryan and his father in their impres­sive effort to raise mon­ey for such an impor­tant orga­ni­za­tion as JDRF,’ said Atwood ​“Woody” Collins III, Pres­i­dent of M&T Bank’s Mid-Atlantic Divi­sion. ​‘All of Ryan’s col­leagues at M&T wish them well on their climb and we will be fol­low­ing their progress and cheer­ing them on.’

“Both are avid sports­men and marathon run­ners, but nei­ther of them has climbed a moun­tain as high as Mt. Kilimanjaro.

” ​‘This adven­ture will ben­e­fit a great char­i­ty, but will also be a once-in-a-life­time expe­ri­ence for a father and son. I was look­ing for some­one who would do this with me and I can­not think of a greater father-son bond­ing expe­ri­ence,’ said Ryan Weir. 

“JDRF is a leader in set­ting the agen­da for dia­betes research world­wide, and is the largest char­i­ta­ble fun­der and advo­cate of type 1 dia­betes research. The mis­sion of JDRF is to find a cure for dia­betes and its com­pli­ca­tions through the sup­port of research. Type 1 dia­betes is a dis­ease which strikes chil­dren and adults sud­den­ly and requires mul­ti­ple injec­tions of insulin dai­ly or a con­tin­u­ous infu­sion of insulin through a pump. Insulin, how­ev­er, is not a cure for dia­betes, nor does it pre­vent its even­tu­al and dev­as­tat­ing com­pli­ca­tions, which may include kid­ney fail­ure, blind­ness, heart dis­ease, stroke, and ampu­ta­tion. Since its found­ing in 1970 by par­ents of chil­dren with type 1 dia­betes, JDRF has award­ed more than $1.4 bil­lion to dia­betes research, includ­ing more than $100 mil­lion last year.”