January 2006 - Update

SUCCESS - Twelve mountain climbers decided to help us with our goal of raising $100,000 to build a home for street kids in Peru. All twelve mountain climbers set out to summit Orizaba (5,700m - 18,700ft) this past January.

Background - We are working together with Inti Runakunaq Wasin (IRW), which is Quechua for "House of the People of the Sun", a local non-profit organization that acts as a haven for children who live in extreme poverty. IRW currently works with 50 children but have a goal of establishing a bigger home outside of Cuzco in order to provide services to more children in need.

In order to achieve our goal, the Planeterra Foundation is organizing fundraising events and is relying on matched donations from travellers and other donors. To help make this dream a reality, one of our G.A.P Adventures Tour Leaders, Rich Belliveau has spearheaded the Mountain Climb For Charity. Rich flew to Puebla , Mexico where he and his team climbed Pico de Orizaba Ð the highest active volcano in North America!

Rich has been spending lots of time with the kids at IRW and along with the rest of the team, they decided to help out by providing the children with a series of triangular flags that each child will be able to paint, draw, write or decorate as a way to express their dreams and aspirations for the future. Not only have they been given an opportunity to be heard; the kids are also very excited that their flags will be carried to the summit of Orizaba as a symbol of their first step towards a better future - some thing we at Planeterra are also very proud of.

UPDATE - from Rich Belleiveau

January 2006 - I set off for Mexico to meet a group of people whom I had never before met, and to start something I was not entirely sure I was capable of handling, but I knew I had the support I needed right there in my heart. The day before I set off to Pico de Orizaba (5710 meters) with Mike, Mary, Ian & the rest of the team.That day we set off to Orizaba, we had our last meal in the comfort of an old converted soap factory, and then we went to sleep after having a nerve-wrecking conversation over rope team leaders, possible fatal mistakes & the probability of us making it - or not. It seemed trivial at the time, but none of that meeting ever really scared me; I felt completely confident I could do it, and I knew I had the right people with me. The group decided I was going to lead a team, as were Mike & Mary.

The next morning we got on the truck, and set off through the green melee of trees & rocks to the Base Camp we would call our own for the next few days.

I sat on the roof of the truck with Mike & Ian, Mary took the front seat of the 1952 Dodge we were riding on. We four knew that nothing would stop us from making it to the summit.

We were ready to risk anything for the kids we so readily decided to do it all for. All of us were at the peak of our determination, but little did we know about what it was we were about to attempt. After a day at High Camp, we took the group up to the tongue of the glacier to practice self-rescue & anchors, and realized that from that point on we would be responsible for the lives of many others who might not feel the same way about the peak as we did. We carried on knowing that we were very low on water supplies, and that we would need all the strength we could get to lead those three teams to the summit.That night we sat down with everyone and went through the procedures and the rationing of supplies. To our surprise, Mike, Mary, Ian & I were set aside by the rest of the group. They had decided to sacrifice their rations of food & water to allow us to bag this peak - they were willing to stay behind & let us conquer it. I told my team why I was doing this, and I told them why it was important to me, and we all knew whom it was we were sacrificing it all for. From that point on there was no stopping us. Our goal was set, and the summit was no longer a dream, it would soon become reality.

The altitude is nothing compared to Everest, but it's enough to make a person loose his sense of judgment & level headedness. After hours spent climbing though scree, we made it to the lip of the glacier where we were already frozen by bits. We roped up,said a final prayer, and started off straight up the north side of the glacier. We all knew the success rate was about twenty percent but we pushed forward through the cold. A shooting star lite up the sky & we remembered what we knew we had the wishes & dreams of many kids on our backs. We made it to a summit we believed to be the one, and realized we still had miles to go. As we came up to the ridge on top of the volcano, the wind was blowing strong enough it could have easily carried Mary away if she hadn't been weighed down by all that gear & roped to the rest of us. A mere meter form the actual summit, the energy was intense, we unclipped from our lifelines and slowly made our way to the highest point. We hugged & smiled as we knew we had conquered. I reached into my bag and pulled out the kids' flags. We slowly unrolled them and threw the other end into the wind and ran across that summit. Those prayer flags flew higher then ever before, and as I ran I felt the futures of all our children growing & growing until I couldn't hold them anymore. The looks on our faces turned from fear to glory, and we took those dreams and aspirations with us as we held each other on that fine day. The very success of the generation of kids we were helping. It was their turn to shine.

Congratulations to Rich and his team. Please add to the success of this climb by donating now.