COUNCIL ROCK – While many of her teenage friends are sleeping late or tearing wrapping paper off presents Christmas morning, Clare Roche will start a seven-day trek up one of the world’s highest mountains.
The 16-year-old Council Rock High School-North junior will climb Mount Kilimanjaro with her dad, Richard. They said they will leave Dec. 22 and begin the ascent on Christmas Day.
But Clare decided to turn the father/daughter trip into something more than a bonding farewell before she heads off to college. She’s hiking to give children in Africa a better holiday.
Through the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, the Washington Crossing resident set up a Web site and is trying to raise enough money to form an emergency response team. UNICEF is an international nonprofit organization that advocates for children’s rights and protection.
People can donate through her personalized page, and the money she raises will go to kids in Africa, where children are struggling to survive wars, famine, diseases and droughts.
With the donated funds, the emergency response team can provide health care, sanitation and food to those needy children, officials said.
Her goal is $2,500. So far, Clare has collected almost $1,200, according to her site.
“I always have Christmas with my family,” said Clare, a varsity athlete at CR-North. “It just seems better to help other people that don’t have anything. I don’t mind giving up my Christmas. I’ve had 16 good ones so far.”
Not only is the hike a first for Clare, but she might become one of the youngest people to reach the summit of the 19,340-foot-high mountain above Tanzania in Africa, officials said.
The youngest, according to an online travel guide report, was a 12-year-old American boy.
“I’m worried about the physical part of it,” said Clare, a soccer and field hockey player and volunteer for the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange. “But I think it will be interesting and fun.”
Richard and Clare will trek four to eight hours a day as they acclimate to an environment with diminishing oxygen, said Clare’s mother, Gail.
On the final day, they will awaken before midnight, don headlamps and attempt an eight-hour push to the top to catch the sunrise. Clare and her dad will return home Jan. 2, Gail said.
“I just hope to reach or pass my [fundraising] goal and somehow know that I helped,” she said. “I hope other people feel the same and contribute.”
Want to help?
To donate to Clare Roche’s UNICEF emergency response team, visit www.unicefusa.org/ert/clare.
Rachel Canelli can be reached at 215-949-4191 or rcanelli@phillyBurbs.com.
