December 11th from 7pm-9pm
Philadelphia Rock Gym, Valley
255 South Mount Airy Road
Valley Township, PA 19320
Hollie Helbein and Rebecca Grier are students at Downingtown High School who are organizing a Climb-A-Thon, to raise money for the OI Foundation. For this event they are asking for participating climbers with or without experience to find sponsors, and raise money for their climbs. The money raised will then go to the foundation. In addition to that there will be a raffle and bake sale during the event. All other donations are welcome.
They chose to donate the money to the OI foundation because Hollie was diagnosed with OI when she was 10 years old. OI, or Osteogenesis Imperfecta, is a brittle bone disease which results in an abundance of fractures and breaks.
"When I was diagnosed, I was already very involved in rock climbing. I had all my own gear and was going to the climbing gym three days a week. When the doctors told me I had OI, they wanted me to stop climbing because they were afraid I'd injure myself while climbing.
Over the past 7 years, I've had about (if not more than) 20 fractures, a few of which came from climbing. However, I never let my injuries stop me. If I had a broken arm; I would only use my feet and my good arm to climb. If I had a broken foot; I'd use my arms and my good foot to climb. And on the rare occasion that I had both a hurt hand and foot; I would climb with my good arm and good foot (as shown in the profile picture). So that is where the three limbed climbing comes in, if you chose to climb without a limb, of your choice, the completed climb will count as doing two climbs instead of one. This is not required but will show you some of the struggles that I have climbed through.
Everyone at the climbing gym has always supported me, and so I wanted to base my graduation project off of the two biggest impacts in my life; rock climbing and OI. So what better way to bring them together than to hold a Climb-A-Thon raising money for OI?"
- Hollie Helbein
Waiver (which is a MUST HAVE to climb and has to be completely filled out)Sponsors Sheet
After you have the sponsor sheet, ask people or companies to sponsor you. The sponsors can either give you a flat fee or a certain amount per climb. If they give you money per climb, then you will collect the money after the climbing day. As stated above, if a you choose to climb with 3 limbs, the climb will count as two. If they pay a flat fee, you can decide when to pick up the money.
Minimum sponsorship to participate is $10.00. If you raise $10.00 you do not need to pay for gear or anything else.
You MUST RSVP a week in advance. Either on Facebook, email us at oi.climb.a.thon@gmail.com or Register online here
