Join us for Film, Auction and Action - a Girls Ed Fundraiser!

Join us now.  Join us on October 12th to celebrate your potential to impact great change.  Join us to see how even the smallest gesture can change the life of one human being ... which can, and will, change the lives of many! 

Do you ever hear the word Pakistan and feel a wobble in your brain - like a bunch of little synapses firing at one another trying to decide what to produce for you to think about?  Well, maybe it's just me. 

The media recently has mostly focused on the tensions between the US and Pakistan or the devastation of the floods that have devastated an already vulnerable nation.  But is that really all there is to Pakistan?  Is that all we can have on our radar when we hear the name of this colorful, mountainous, linguistically rich nation?  What other images can we conjure?  What faces can we see?  What landscape can we admire?

On a recent trip to Pakistan, climber Kelly Cordes left the mountains after discovering his shoulder wouldn't serve him on his ambitious endeavor.  He headed into the country to live it, feel it, breathe it and share it.  Take a moment to explore his words and share his experience through his blog by clicking here.  His insights share what we will never really come to know until we, too, touch our feet to the earth in Pakistan.

We have to remember - amid the disaster, the conflicts and the poverty ... there is hope.  There are young girls and boys who dream big and their dreams start with education.  "When we get education, we can spread the light and do away with the widespread ignorance in our society," declared Kashif Shah, a Grade 3 student. 

The children can't wait for peace. The girls can't wait for greater equality. Their time is now.  They are young and it is a fundamental human right to have access to education:

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations:


(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.


(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

Please, join us in Boulder, Colorado on October 12th as we screen a fabulous documentary, A Small Act and host a silent auction to raise funds for girls education in Pakistan. We want you, but the girls need you.

Shukriya
Thank You,

Girls Education International
http://www.girlsed.org/

Heidi Wirtz an Inspiring Soles semifinalist

We recently discovered that Heidi was voted as one of Outside Mag and Croc's Inspiring Soles, which means she gets $5,000 that she can donate to her favorite charity. This will pay for our Liberia program through spring of 2010! This is fantastic news.

On another bright note, we have a really great potential partner to work with in Pakistan, so perhaps we will finally be able to get our Khane project going next year.

Finally, we are having a fundraiser in early October. It will be at the B-Side restaurant. I'll post some more news on that in a bit.
-Lizzy

Girls Ed to Host Fundraiser June 26 featuring author/alpinist Pete Takeda

Press Release
Contact:
Lizzy Scully
303-903-2768

On Thursday, June 26, from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., the Hangar Restaurant in Estes Park is hosting a benefit for Girls Education International, a nonprofit organization founded by North Face athlete Heidi Wirtz and Rock & Ice Senior Contributing Editor Lizzy Scully. The fundraiser will feature tunes by local musician Justin Faye and a slide show by author and mountaineer Pete Takeda. The $35 ticket includes a BBQ, unlimited New Belgium Brewery beer, and raffle tickets for dozens of items. There will also be a silent auction.

Takeda recently published a book entitled, “An Eye at the Top of the World: The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War’s Most Daring CIA Operation.” In the early 1980s, the CIA decided to put a nuclear-powered spy device on the top of Nanda Devi—one of the Himalayas’ most remote and forbidding peaks. The goal was to gather information on Chinese troop movements. Some time later, the apparatus stopped sending signals; it was as though it had completely disappeared. The device was never recovered, and now, nearly four pounds of plutonium, locked in the glacier beneath the mountain are moving ever closer to the source of the Ganges River.

“That’s enough manmade poison to kill every human on earth, or to produce a bomb capable of flattening a city,” explained Takeda.

For this book, Takeda not only interviewed surviving members of the original expedition—during which the climbers huddled around the spy device for warmth given off by the decay of radioactive elements—he retraced their steps to the peak itself. While en route, Takeda has his own harrowing experience with the violent forces of the mountain, and was almost swept away in an avalanche. To learn more, come to the Hangar Restaurant and check out Takeda’s exciting show.

Girls Education International (GEI) is a 501(c)3 operating under the umbrella of The Mountain Fund. GEI currently has two operational programs and two additional programs that they hope to launch by 2009. The profits from this fundraiser will go toward their Liberia Scholarship program, which provides scholarships to 42 girls in the mountainous regions of Liberia, and also to one of their Nepal scholarship programs, which provides scholarships to two girls in Kathmandu. For more information, please visit: www.girlsed.org, or call 303-903-2768.

All donations, including the $35 dinner ticket, are tax deductible. Raffle and silent auction items provided by: Glassworks of Estes, The Meadow Mountain Café, Evolv shoes, The North Face, SkirtSports, La Sportiva shoes, jewelry by Suspended Stone Design, photography by Topher Donahue, Majka Burhardt’s book, “Vertical Ethiopia,” signed copies of Takeda’s book, and many other items.

Thanks also to all the people/businesses who donated products for the event:

The Estes Park Mountain Shop, Rob the owner, & all the EPMS employees for providing the venue for the event and the $25 gift certificate to the shop, and the three-month membership to the gym. Thanks also to Zach for organizing a good part of the event.
The Estes Park Brewery for providing us with the keg and a half of beer that was consumed!
GlassWorks, Estes, for the handblown pitcher (that I was just dying to have!)
The Wild Basin Lodge, Allenspark, for the $200 gift certificate
Statik Mountain Products for the two $50 gift certificates
The Spot Gym, Boulder, for the five-card punch pass
Chris Wall, Boulder, for the two training sessions
Seth Watson, Boulder, for the massage
Rambo’s Liquor Store, Estes, for the nice bottle of wine
The Stone Cup Coffee Shop, Lyons, for the three gift certificates
Tom at Longs Peak Coffee and Paper Shop, Estes, for the posters of Longs Peak and other things
Jane & Polartec, Estes, for all the great fleece jackets and vests
Komito Boots, Estes, for the Longs Peak poster
Rock & Ice magazine for the two subscriptions
Prana for the wonderful items of clothing
Patagonia for the cool fleece
Katy’s Hand Jam for the numerous containers of awsome hand salve
Pangea Organics for the wonderful, organic soap products