Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Scaling The Heights of Servant Leadership – Mountains For Miracles

On the heels of last week’s fine article by General Terry Schwalier about “Service Above Self,” I thought that the timing was ideal to introduce a project that is close to my own heart. The project is called “Mountains for Miracles.” John Serafini is the Founder and Executive Director of this amazing initiative.

John Serafini and I were introduced a couple of years ago by our mutual friend, Darin Souza. Both John and Darin are West Point graduates currently pursuing their MBA degrees. John is at Harvard and Darin is at Tuck Business School at Dartmouth.

As most readers of The White Rhino Report are aware, I know a lot of people! John Serafini is one of the most interesting and compelling individuals I have met in the past few years. Nothing is too daunting for John. When I first met him, he had just competed in the Army’s “Best Ranger Competition" – a grueling two-day affair that makes the Olympic Decathlon look like a walk in the park. John and his comrade, Paul Staehli, were among the top finishers. On my desk, I have a picture of John and Paul that ran in Sports Illustrated as that magazine offered comprehensive coverage of the Best Ranger Competition. Using the same intrepid approach, John has pursued dual studies at Harvard, both at the Business School and at the Kennedy School of Government. It should not be surprising, then, to learn that when cancer touched a member of John’s family, John chose to respond by making a frontal assault against that dread disease. John has pulled together a remarkable team of men and women who have created a movement and an organization called “Mountains for Miracles.”

I am pleased to make you all aware of this exciting and challenging initiative to raise money for solving the problem of cancer in children.

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More American children die from cancer than from any other disease. Mountains for Miracles addresses this social concern by combining mountaineering with fundraising to generate the funds and awareness needed to find a cure.

Our inaugural campaign is a record-setting expedition to climb the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents within seven months. We intend to use the catalyst of this exciting expedition as a fundraising platform to reach our goal of $5MM for pediatric oncology research at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & The Jimmy Fund.

Please visit www.mountainsformiracles.org for an overview of our organization, our cause, and our quest to climb the Seven Summits to raise $5MM for the fight against childhood cancers!

Via a partnership with Kintera, our website has the capability to accept online contributions. Please also feel free to forward this email to your respective networks of friends and families - please help us spread the word!

We have recently received a gracious "challenge gift" of $1,000. This donation will be contributed to the Mountains for Miracles organization once this current drive reaches $5,000. Please help us reach this goal!

Click here to donate to Mountains for<http://mfm.kintera.org/> Miracles.

Thank you for your support and contributions!

The Mountains for Miracles Team

John Serafini

Executive Director & Expedition Leader


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I just went on-line and made a contribution. The whole process took only a couple of minutes out of my life, but that simple gesture may help to extend the life of a child for many decades.

I have also added Mountains for Miracles to The White Rhino’s Favorite Links From A-Z, so you can link to this site for frequent updates on the progress of the Mountains for Miracles team, and also to make regular contributions.

Al

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