I am proud to announce that Mountains for Moms at Cornell has raised $14,545, enough funds to forever change the lives of 72 women.
Today's the day. We have held countless meetings, sent even more emails, held awareness events, plastered the campus with quartercards, sprinted up and down the slope (way too many times), and spent months getting ready for this trip, and it's finally here. We depart tonight at 10:20pm from JFK, and after two long days of travel, we will be arriving at Kilimanjaro International Airport on January 1, 2014 to begin this marvelous adventure.
After the fistula-free climb in 2008, no one knew whether this trip would happen again. However, the club resurfaced as Mountains for Moms in the fall of 2011, and after two years, we are finally getting to Kilimanjaro! We restructured the club with a new executive board, and kicked into high gear. Led by myself (Kristen Barnett), Madison Grasty, Peter Noback, and Eric Obeng, some of the die-hards who had been with it from the start, we began to plan. Little did we know what we had gotten into.
However, after hours and hours of negotiating with travel agencies in Tanzania, airlines, and the local M&T Bank for all those wire transfers for deposits (who now know me and Peter by first name), we got the trip together, and made this adventure possible for 13 students. The beauty of this process is that we did it together, in our collective effort to change the world through just one small trip.
After recruiting across campus to find similarly inspired and motivated individuals, we ended up with a solid team who inspires me every day. They have raised money, told friends and family about the trip, and have wholeheartedly dedicated themselves to this awesome mission. Here's the team:
- Luke Mehringer
- Alyssa Troutner
- Carleen Altinok
- Lilia Karimi
- Quinn Cox
- Amanda Steckel
- Jennifer Brenner
- Rebecca Li
- Jenny Tang
- Peter Noback (VP Finance)
- Eric Obeng (VP Service)
- Madison Grasty (Vice President)
- Kristen Barnett (President)
We want to thank so many people for helping make this possible - our families, for supporting us with this crazy idea and actually letting us go to Tanzania with 12 other students; our friends, for putting up with our constant "I'm climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro this January and this is why..."; acquaintances, for listening to us and becoming involved in this mission and donating, and everyone who has ever taking a second glance and an extra moment to learn what Mountains for Moms is all about.
We also must thank Seth Cochran, founder CEO of Operation Fistula, for providing us with invaluable guidance, advice and inspiration through this journey.
We are doing this to have people as "Why?" A question that would never come up otherwise, if we were not about to summit the world's tallest freestanding mountain. There are too many women suffering in silence, and we are climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro to finally make their voices heard, and give them the chance to have a life they never thought possible after obstetric fistula. Obstetric fistula is 100% fixable, and this is our way of working towards a fistula-free world.
Please follow us on this blog, as we will be updating it as much as possible throughout the trip with pictures and a daily journal of what we are doing!