Hats off to the adventurous…

In the last year, my father in-law climbed Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro with friends…Cindy Shultz from the famed blog, Halifax Broad, trekked Machu Picchu with her son…and Gail Lomas, one of the moms at my children’s school, climbed Mt. Everest.

This morning, I climbed out of bed, climbed down my stairs, trekked across my kitchen and totally exhausted from all of the horrendous activity…poured myself a cup of tea and put my feet up!

I’ve never had the desire to trek through rugged terrain and climb mountains though admittedly, helping my father in-law put together a PowerPoint presentation of the 100 best photos from the thousand taken was AWESOME! When those 100 photos were gathered and you could see his amazing journey…the scenery, the sunrises, the difficult terrain…seeing the images showing the stress of climbing through trying conditions and limited oxygen and the excitement on their faces as they waved their flags at the peek…I admit it was incredibly inspiring and left me feeling strangely proud!! Add to that, the pictures of local villages, photographs of individuals they helped along the way and their visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust…causing my children to want to go to Kenya so they too can adopt an orphaned elephant…those were the images that really “got me”!

The climb I’ll leave to the more adventurous but helping the less fortunate…we all can do!

Gail is a mom of two girls, Emma and Andria. After Emma contracted H1N1 followed by Kawasaki Disease…leaving this eight year old battling Arthritis…Gail took on the challenge of trekking to base camp Mt. Everest and in the process raised ten thousand dollars for The Arthritis Society! While in Nepal, she purchased hats and mitts for her girls from the local craftswomen…hand knitting beautiful creations to help their families. Gail knew when she came home, folks would be interested in the hats so she dug a little deeper…seeing where she could help…knowing her life was profoundly changed by her adventure and maybe, just maybe she could pay a little back.

Gail has joined forces with a group of women in Nepal to sell hats and mitts from her home in Halifax in an attempt to raise funds for her next adventure and put money directly in the hands of the knitters. Gail plans on attending local craft fairs and markets in the Fall to sell the hand knit, fleece lined, one of a kind creations and for fifteen dollars, you could have a piece of the adventure!  Gail is able to buy bulk (allowing six to eight weeks for large orders as the women require “knitting time”) so if you’re in need of a fundraising activity of your own…or interested in outfitting your family for the winter… contact Gail at (902) 449-1004 or peakimport.gail@gmail.com.

There are many adventures out there just waiting for the adventurous to take on.  Me…I’m more of a Tuscany girl…or Spain…maybe France. Doesn’t matter really…I just need an adventure!

Read Halifax Broad’s blog post about her trip to Machu Picchu… usually I find myself busting a gut laughing at her ridiculous and shocking humor… but this one had me in tears.  Still… not enough to get me on a mountain!