Fundraising with human-powered global circumnavigator Erden Uruc

Human-pow­ered glob­al cir­cum­nav­i­ga­tor Erden Eruç departs for Mt. Kil­i­man­jaro to climb with Moun­tain Mad­ness and raise mon­ey for Tan­zan­ian sec­ondary school

This week, Seat­tle-based adven­tur­er Erden Eruç launch­es the next phase in his quest to cir­cum­nav­i­gate the world under human pow­er, as part of his char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tion, Around-n-Over (AnO). The mis­sion is to assist poor com­mu­ni­ties by pro­vid­ing basic edu­ca­tion­al aid, resources, and facilities.

Erden giv­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion to Seat­tle’s Alki Ele­men­tary School

Erden row­ing across the high seas.

Amer­i­can Alpine Club Pres­i­dent Steve Swen­son (l), Erden Uruc (m), and Mark Gun­log­son ®at AAC Annu­al Meeting

Eruç will con­tin­ue his Six Sum­mits Expe­di­tion, to climb the high­est sum­mits on the six con­ti­nents he reach­es after approach­ing each by bicy­cle, on foot, and by row­ing across three oceans. His goal in rais­ing aware­ness about his jour­ney is to instill in young peo­ple the val­ues of self­less­ness, sac­ri­fice, and per­se­ver­ance in the tra­di­tion of his­tor­i­cal adven­tur­ers and expe­di­tions. Eruç is the first per­son in his­to­ry to have crossed three oceans (Indi­an, Atlantic, and Pacif­ic) via row­ing. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it: http://​www​.around​-​n​-over​.org/​p​r​o​j​e​c​t​s.htm

Join us for June 5^th Mt. Kil­i­man­jaro Fundrais­er Climb with Moun­tain Madness

The next leg of AnO’s Six Sum­mits Expe­di­tion takes Eruç to Tan­za­nia, and the continent’s high­est peak, Mt. Kil­i­man­jaro, to raise aware­ness for the Mat­eves Sec­ondary School in Arusha. For this jour­ney, AnO has col­lab­o­rat­ed with Moun­tain Mad­ness. We’ll be there to pro­vide our world-class ser­vice that began over twen­ty-five years ago. The goal is for AnO and par­tic­i­pants to raise mon­ey to use toward the build­ing of new class­rooms and edu­ca­tion­al sup­port. Moun­tain Mad­ness will also donate a por­tion of the fees they receive from par­tic­i­pants toward the school. 

Mat­eves Mis­sion State­ment is: ​“To tack­le illit­er­a­cy in the com­mu­ni­ty by ensur­ing that all enrolled stu­dents are pro­vid­ed with fit­ting and qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion, offered in an envi­ron­ment that is con­ducive, and deliv­ered by a com­pe­tent and high­ly moti­vat­ed teach­ing staff.”

For more infor­ma­tion about the climb or about how to donate to the Mat­eves school call our office.

Giv­ing back in Nepal 

As part of an expand­ed ini­tia­tive to give back to the places we trav­el Moun­tain Mad­ness is allo­cat­ing a per­cent­age of gross rev­enues from Nepal treks this year to an orphan­age about three hours out­side of the Kath­man­du Val­ley. With six-ten trips on the sched­ule we hope this con­tri­bu­tion will have a pos­i­tive impact for the Chil­dren’s Home that Moun­tain Mad­ness guide Deana Zabal­do has devel­op along­side a Nepali ngo.

Deana with kids- dress up time for the girls

Sim­ple plea­sures — a game of Chutes and Ladders

Along with dona­tions Moun­tain Mad­ness pres­i­dent Mark Gun­log­son, who vis­it­ed the home last fall, is work­ing with his daugh­ter’s Girl Scout Troop to set-up a cross cul­tur­al exchange that will include writ­ing pen pal let­ters, fundrais­ing for school sup­plies, and rais­ing aware­ness. These small scale ini­tia­tives will go a long way towards giv­ing these girls a broad­er world view — you can’t start to young with this sort of thing!

Mark read­ing to the kids

Hand made pil­lows made by Girl Scouts for their new friends in Nepal

If you would like to donate to this project please vis­it Deana’s site.