Going To New Heights For The Hospital The Summit for Stollery took a team of 12 to Mount Kilimanjaro and raised $1 million in the process BY LISA KADANE
W
hen Richard Kirby summited Mount Kilimanjaro in 2007, it didn’t occur to the Edmonton entrepreneur that he’d ever want to attempt climbing to the top of Africa’s highest mountain a second time. But 12 years later, once the mental and physical toll of ascending to 5,895 metres elevation had become a distant memory, Kirby got it in his head to climb Kili again — this time to raise money for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.
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HEROES MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2020
“I wanted to do something to help raise some money, and also go on an experience with a group of people who were passionate about the cause,” says Kirby, who is past-chair of the Foundation’s volunteer board of trustees. Over six weeks, he cajoled friends and acquaintances until he’d assembled a team of 12 that included Foundation president & CEO Mike House, five board members and others who were passionate about the Hospital and had Mount Kilimanjaro on their bucket list. Kirby then approached the
Foundation’s community initiatives program for project approval and to get support that included an online fundraising page that each team member could personalize. And just like that, the Summit for Stollery was born, with a goal of raising $1 million for the Hospital through donations. The dedicated fundraisers met every Sunday for training hikes in the Edmonton river valley, and team members would sometimes get together ad-hoc to walk or climb stairs. Over the
