Summits for My School

Backyard Environmentalists

2009-06-14T09:56:00.004-04:00

My last blog posting was way back in November, but things about my project keep on going. Over the last seven or eight months, the school bought a van and had it converted to run on vegetable oil, the school's high school Animals and Environmental Workshop has been filtering vegetable oil and taking care of the van, students made artwork and had it put onto the van, and the van has been touring around New England to be at environmental shows. And it even went to the Massachusetts State House for a special award! We call it the Veggie Van.

Another thing that's been going on is that Dan Brielman has been working on a movie about my project, and now it's done! If you want to watch it, click here. It's called Backyard Environmentalists. Do you remember Dan? He and his cameraman, Curtis, climbed Mount Osceola and East Osceola with us last year. Last week he came to our school and showed the students in my grade and some of the high school students the video, and from my opinion, it's awesome. I hope you'll like it too.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me out. I couldn't have done it without you. When I started this project, I never imagined how many people would help me or what the effects would be. But my school is now doing a lot of good, green stuff because of this.

Green Tip #11: Do you want to go green? Plant an organic garden in your yard. It creates healthy habits, good food, and helps the environment. We planted a garden at home this year and water it with rain water kept in barrels, and at school we have a lot of raised bed vegetable gardens outside, and my class did a hydroponics project.

The SSCPS Veggie Van

2008-11-23T13:28:00.007-05:00

I want to say "thank you" one last time to everyone who helped me with my fundraising goal. I raised more than $5000.

My school is very lucky that you all helped. I want to let you know what the school and I decided to do with the money. The South Shore Charter Public School, if you didn't already know, is a small K-through-12 school. The school doesn't have any buses or a gym or an auditorium, so we use vans to get groups of students to places like sporting events at far away schools, field trips, and other events. We spend a lot of money on diesel fuel for these trips, which also causes a lot of pollution. So, the school purchased a used van, and the Summits for My School money was used to convert the van to run on vegetable oil. It paid for the conversion kit, a filtering station shed, the filtration equipment, and for the guy who did the work to convert the van from diesel to veggie oil. His name is Lawrence and he owns Cape Green Auto.

The school started using the van last week. The high school science/biology class is going to keep track of the number of miles it travels, how much pollution was prevented, and how much money is being saved. The students from this class have learned how to filter the vegetable oil that we'll get from local restaurants. A local golf club has agreed to donate over 100 gallons of veggie oil a week (during the 6 months that it's open). The school is going to put my project's logo on the side of the van.

Did you know that a car or truck that runs on vegetable oil smells like whatever restaurant it's burning oil from? So, if the oil is from McDonalds, it will smell like French fries, and if it's from a Chinese food restaurant, it'll smell like egg rolls.

Because of my project, the school set up a special "eco-committee" and has started to do things like recycle just about everything, and making sure that lights and computers are off in rooms that are not being used. The teachers are using less paper and more emails to talk with parents. People are trying to use less disposable dishes and utensils. And lots of other great things.

The last thing that I want to tell you is that the school gave me an award and a plaque for my project. It's called the "Make a Difference" award and I'm the first person to get it. Each year a student at the school who does outstanding community service will get the award, and I get to help choose the recipient.

Thank you, so, so, so, so, so much. This has been a very fun year climbing mountains, and I'm really happy with how the project turned out and that it's helping my school. I plan to keep climbing mountains next year. Feel free to visit my blog any time. Happy holidays!

I did it! 10 summits and $5000

2008-09-21T17:52:00.011-04:00

I did it! I reached the summits of ten "4000-footers" this year and raised over $5000 to help my school "go green." Before I tell you about my latest hike, I would like to say "thank you," again, to everyone who donated to my project, to everyone who said encouraging things to me, and to all of the companies that sponsored me. And I want to give a special thanks to my little brother Lucas, who is only seven and accompanied me on six of the ten mountains. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

We all woke up -- me, my brother, my dad, and my papa -- before 6:00 in the morning, and it was freezing. There was frost on the ground. After some hot cocoa and coffee we got our gear and headed for the trail. It was so cold that we all had to wear gloves and mittens for the first hour of the hike. The trail that we took up towards our first mountain was rocky and slippery. It's called Falling Waters Trail and it goes by a bunch of waterfalls and crosses a stream about five times. I was looking forward to showing my brother Shining Rock Cliff, which is a big cliff with lots of water trickling down, because I did this same hike about a year ago and saw it then. We reached the first summit, Little Haystack Mountain, about three hours after we started. Little Haystack Mountain is 4,840 feet high, but it doesn't count as a "4000-footer" because it's on a ridge trail and the drops between the mountains next to it are less than 200 feet. So, I couldn't count it as one of my project summits.

Then we headed off towards our next summit, Mount Lincoln, which is 5,089 feet high. Surprisingly, Mount Lincoln is not in the Presidential Range. Maybe Lincoln got lost! The trail along the ridge is part of the Appalachian Trail, and it's very rocky. We each made up a code name, because on the Appalachian Trail, you're not allowed to use your real name. My name was Navigator, Luke's was The Ace, Dad's was Smurf, and Papa's was Stone Fingers. We reached the top of Mount Lincoln, my 9th project summit, but didn't stay very long.

On our way to Mount Lafayette we heard an airplane nearby. We looked up and saw that a small plane was towing a glider. This was really cool because I had never seen a glider before. We saw the glider release from the airplane and zoom around the top of the mountain. It was really quiet and when it came around the mountain it looked like it came out of nowhere. Mount Lafayette is about one mile from Mount Lincoln, still along the Appalachian Trail. I was the first one in our small group of four to reach the summit. When I reached the summit -- my 10th and final summit! -- I felt awesome and fantastic. We had some snacks, enjoyed the view, took a lot of pictures, and then started to head down along the Old Bridle Path.

On our way down, between the summit and the Greenleaf Hut, we met a group with a couple of dogs, and they told us that they had lost their white husky. They asked us if we had seen it, but we hadn't. As we kept going down, people who passed us said that they had seen the dog and that it was running towards the hut, in the wrong direction from where its owners were headed. So we started screaming up the mountain, "DOG PEOPLE! DOG PEOPLE! YOUR DOG IS DOWN HERE!" Then we saw one of the dog owners running past us to catch the husky. About a quarter of a mile from Greenleaf Hut we saw the man bringing back his dog towards the summit. We clapped and congratulated him.

We snacked at Greenleaf Hut and then started the final stretch back to the campground, still about 3 miles and a lot of back-braking labor (Greenleaf Hut is at 4,070 feet) away. About halfway down we saw a man carrying crates on his back up the mountain. We asked him what they were for and he said that they were filled with food and supplies for the hut. It looked very uncomfortable.

When we finally reached the end of the trail -- 9.1 miles and 8 1/2 hours later -- I tore off my backpack, whipped off my baseball hat, and started dancing. I call it "The Summits Jig." I felt so great being done and I was proud about what I did for my school, except I have to admit that I was also a little sad because my project was now over. I know that I'm going to keep on climbing mountains. And maybe someday I'll start another project.

If you'd like to see some photos of this final hike, click here.

Also, on the right side of this page you can vote for which one of my hikes was your favorite (I'm not going to tell you which one was mine). You can read about them again if you look at my blog log from previous months. Lastly, my dad did some math and figured out if you add up the distance from these ten summit hikes, it comes to 53.6 miles -- and that's MOUNTAIN miles, with lots of rocks and roots. And if you add up the elevations of the ten mountains, it comes to 44,892 feet, which is higher than Mount Everest (29,029 feet).

Green Tip #10: Take Action! Don't be shy about starting your own project to help your school or your community save the environment. Just look what one nine-year-old kid can do.

More Press and More Mountains

2008-08-25T19:53:00.003-04:00

I've missed climbing mountains this month, but it's been a busy month. I went on a vacation to Cape Cod, and I've been going to a day camp. Now that September is almost here, I'm planning to climb my last two mountains for this project (though I might even climb more than ten before the end of the year). The next two mountains are going to be Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette, both on the Franconia Ridge Trail in New Hampshire. These mountains are both over 5,000 feet high. I've actually climbed both of these mountains before -- FLASHBACK: last October -- it was pouring rain when we woke up and started hiking, but once we got to the top and the ridge trail, it was beautiful and the clouds were below us. So I'm looking forward to climbing them again, and I hope my mom and my brother will join me this time.

I was really excited last Saturday morning when I woke up and saw that my picture was in the local newspaper. The reporter that wrote about me last January wrote about me again. Click here to read Saturday's article.

My crazy dad thought it might be cool to mention this neat website for parents called The Green Parent. It gives parents lots of tips about raising their kids and family to be green people and be good to the earth. Click here to check it out.

Green Tip #9: This one comes from the Green Parent blog. A lot of kids are going back to school right now, and they might need some help getting ready. Before you go out and buy everything at a store, look around your house for notebooks, pencils, crayons, and other school supplies that you probably already have. You may even find a backpack in your closet. For more back-to-school green tips from the Green Parent blog, click here.

Summits #7 & #8: Mt Osceola & East Osceola

2008-07-28T19:52:00.010-04:00

Before I tell you about our exciting hike, I would like to thank you all for helping me get so close to my fundraising goal. I only need to hike two more summits and raise $22 to meet my goal of ten summits and $5000. Wow! My project is supposed to end in November, but it's only July. I think I'll climb more than ten this year, and it would be great if I went above my fundraising goal. Now, I'm going to tell you about the hike.

The hike was 10.2 miles long, it took about 8 1/2 hours, and we reached the peaks of two mountains: Mount Osceola, 4,340 feet & East Osceola, 4,156 feet.

We camped Friday and Saturday night at the Osceola Vista Campground in Waterville Valley. It was really close to Mount Tecumseh, which was my first mountain summit of this project. On Saturday morning we got up really early, ate breakfast, drank cocoa, and waited for the cameramen to arrive. Yes! there were actually cameramen on our hike. They're both professional cameramen for local news stations, and one of them is interested in making a film about me. It might get on TV! The cameramen took some shots of the mountain from the campground, while we got our packs and water ready.

Our hike up to Mount Osceola was fun. The weather was beautiful and the sky was blue. Some of the rocks were slippery because of all the rain they've been getting in New Hampshire (a tornado hit New Hampshire just a few days ago, which is really rare, and someone got killed). We stopped a few times so that the cameramen could set up a good shot. Sometimes we had to walk along the same part of the trail twice, like a do-over. And we had to pretend that the camera wasn't there. We reached the summit in about 2 1/2 hours, and there were already some other hikers at the top, and one of them had even seen my blog site before! The summit from Mount Osceola is really beautiful, and we got great views of the Tripyramids and Mount Tecumseh. We could even see our campground.

We stayed on the summit for about a half an hour and then headed over to East Osceola. The trail to East Osceola is very steep in some places. One spot is even called The Chimney, so you can imagine how steep that is -- it's almost straight up and down about 30 feet. In the spots that weren't super steep and rocky, it was muddy with lots of trees. The top of East Osceola is in the trees and has no view. There is a cairn that my brother and I kept accidentally knocking over, but we fixed it each time.

The trip from East Osceola down to the Greeley Ponds area was a little scary. First, there were more very, very steep sections. Then the cameramen decided to go ahead of us to set up a good shot. But they got so far ahead that we thought that we had lost them, and were really worried that maybe they took a wrong turn somewhere. And then, my dad took a bad fall, flipped over, off of the trail, and cut his leg. We finally found the camera guys near Upper Greeley Pond and were relieved. Then, we took off our boots and splashed around the cold pond for a while. It felt really great on my sore feet.

From Greeley Pond, the trail back to our campground went through a long valley and was pretty flat. But it was also really long -- about four miles. My legs cramped up a little bit just before we reached our campground, but I was excited that we made it! My dad drove the cameramen back to their car at the trailhead and picked up a mother and daughter from Norway and brought them back to our campsite, where their cellphone would work. They were so nice and they gave me $20 for my project.

This climb was really fun, and thank you again for helping me get so close to reaching my goal. If you'd like to see a bunch of photos and a slideshow of our hike, click here.

Green Tip #8: When you're at the grocery store, which should you ask for - plastic bags or paper bags? A lot of people say paper, because you can grow more trees and paper is biodegradable. Really, making a paper bag creates 70 percent more air pollution than making a plastic bag. But, plastic bags are bad too. They're made from oil and they take a long time to biodegrade. So instead of either, you should bring your own reusable bags, such as canvas ones like my mom uses.

Hiking Games

2008-07-21T20:18:00.006-04:00

My hikes usually take about six to twelve hours, depending on how far they are, so my hiking buddy and I need to occupy ourselves for that whole trip. One of the ways we like to occupy ourselves is by playing games. I'd like to tell you about four of the games that we play.

1. The Letter Game: This one is my favorite. First you have to think of a category, like "animals," "Star Wars," or "cities." Then someone says a name of something in that subject, like "Boston." Then the next player has to think of a city that begins with the last letter of the city just named, like "Newton" or "New York." And so on, and so on, until you get bored or can't think of anything else.

2. 20 Questions: I bet most of you already know how to play this game. My hiking buddy and I don't really ask just 20 question. We just keep asking questions until someone figures it out. I'm very good with the Star Wars character category.

3. Would You Rather: We made this game up last fall when we were climbing Mount Greylock. In the game, a player asks another player something like, "Would you rather be a policeman, fireman, or a typewriter repairman?" Then the person says their answer. Sometimes they're really funny, like "Would you rather be an Ewok from Return of the Jedi, an Ork from Lord of the Rings, or a radio active spider?"

4. The Story Game: In this game we make up a story. Someone starts off by saying a sentence or two, then the next person says a couple of sentences, and so on, and so on, until the story is done (or just too weird to go on). When my dad and I climbed Mount Pierce and Mount Eisenhower -- just the two of us alone -- we played this game a lot. We made up stories about an Indian and a young boy, a small pine needle man, and kids in a flying boat. They were very funny.

Green Tip #7: Try to reduce the amount of catalogs and junk mail that come to your house. Each year 19.8 billion catalogs are mailed in the United States (that's like 61 million trees!). A 4th grade school teacher from Boston wrote me a letter and told me about a project he started in his class to get rid of catalogs. If you'd like to learn more about it, click here.

Summit #6: Mount Moosilauke

2008-06-29T18:14:00.008-04:00

Six of the ten mountains in my goal have now been climbed. Yesterday, I climbed my sixth: Mount Moosilauke. Moosilauke is 4,802 feet high, and is the most southwestern of the White Mountains. The whole trail was 7.2 miles long. My climbing buddies were my papa, my brother, and my dad, so there were three generations of our family on this hike. We woke up about 5:30 in the morning and drove to New Hampshire. Then we had breakfast in North Woodstock at Peg's Family Restaurant, and got to the beginning of the trail at 8:45 AM.

Mount Moosilauke is interesting because it's actually owned by a college: Dartmouth College. The college owns about 4,500 acres of the mountain and also has a big lodge at its base where you can stay. We started our hike at the lodge. The weather was cool, humid, and super foggy. We hoped that the fog would clear by the time we got to the top, but it didn't. If you were standing 20 feet away from me, I probably couldn't see you. There was this one place that my brother and I called the Dark Forest because it was so dark and misty, and it reminded us of Harry Potter.

We hiked up the trail for about 2 1/2 hours, and we made really good time going up the Gorges Brook Trail. It was foggy the whole time. When we got close to the top, there weren't as many trees, and it was just barren rocks, and more fog. We got to the summit at 11:15 AM and there were some other hikers there. We told a few of them about my project. We had heard that the view from the summit of Mount Moosilauke is supposed to be one of the best in all of New Hampshire and the White Mountains, but we never got to see it. But it was still really neat. At the top of the mountain there are some rocky foundations from an old hotel. It was called the Tip Top House and was built in 1860. It burned down in 1942 after a 3-day storm. Me, my brother, my papa, and my dad all sat in one of the old foundations, because it was really windy and wet, and we had something to eat.

Then we started our way back down, but we took a different trail. From the top we followed the Appalachian Trail for about a mile and a half and then branched off onto the Carriage Road Trail. We walked and walked, with my brother and me taking turns being the leader. It took us another 2 1/2 hours to get back to the lodge, but it was a nice hike. The fog never lifted. And when we got back down, we looked up and still couldn't see the summit or most of the mountain.

If you would like to see some more photos of our hike, please click here. You might also notice that my brother and I are wearing Summits for My School T-shirts. If you would like to buy one (or a mug, or a necktie, or a baseball cap....) just click here. They're really nice T-shirts.

Green Tip #6: When we were near the top of Moosilauke, my papa found a candy wrapper under a rock. My dad picked it up and stuffed it in his backpack so that he could throw it away later. So my Green Tip is to please not litter. It can hurt the environment very badly. And if you see litter, pick it up and throw it away. And if you see anybody littering, if it's OK with your parents, you can go over and ask them not to litter.

AMC Outdoors Magazine

2008-06-26T20:12:00.005-04:00

Every month in the Appalachian Mountain Club's Outdoors magazine, there's a story about someone who is doing something to help the environment. And in this month's magazine, I'm happy to say that that person is me. A few weeks ago I got interviewed by Fred Durso at the AMC who writes for the magazine. I think it's a good article and if you want to read it, just click on this photo. I hope you enjoy it. The picture in the article was from last year when I was on Little Haystack Mountain, heading for the Franconia Ridge Trail.

This weekend I am going to climb my sixth mountain for the project. It's name is Mount Moosilauke and it's about 4,800 feet high. My little brother and my papa are coming with me on the hike. This will be my papa's first mountain. I will have a report on my blog about the hike later in the weekend, so stay tuned.

Green Tip #5: At my house we use rain barrels to collect rain water from the roof, and we use it to water our garden plants. Rain water is fine for garden plants, even though it may look dirty. Making a rain barrel is very easy. Step 1: find an old barrel or trash can. Step 2: cut a hole in the top of the barrel. Step 3: place the barrel near a downspout. Step 4: put a spigot on the bottom of the barrel. Step 5: wait for it to rain. Step 6: When it is raining, watch your rain barrel fill up fast. Or you can just watch this video.

It's Almost Summer!

2008-06-11T20:19:00.006-04:00

It's almost summer! I have only one more week of school. But my fundraising project will continue all summer and into next fall. I still have 5 more mountains to climb. The next mountain I'm climbing, my sixth for the project, is going to be Mount Moosilauke, which is 4,802 feet high. We'll do it in a couple of weeks. This is the most southwestern of the White Mountains and I hear that it has a really cool view at the top. The Appalachian Trail also goes right over this mountain. My Papa is going to come with us on this hike, which means there will be three generations on this hike. Maybe you've read his blog, The Right Thing.

I just got a new gear sponsor for my project. Klean Kanteen makes stainless steel water bottles. They gave me a few. I used some on my last hike up Cannon Mountain, and we auctioned two on eBay to help raise more money for the project. Thanks very much, Klean Kanteen!

One really exciting thing that happened recently is that one of the high school teachers from my school (her name is Tara) and one of her students, Kristin, invited me and my mom to see a survey and report they did about transportation at our school. Since my school is a charter school it has lots of people from different towns, which means that more people use cars to get there. Also, our school has a van that they use to take the sports teams to different places. And that uses a lot of gas. Tara and Kristin wanted to talk with me about maybe using the money from my project to try to convert one of the school vans to run on vegetable oil. We're going to talk more about it over the summer.

Green Tip #4 (sorry I didn't put one in my last blog posting): We had a heat wave in Massachusetts this week. Instead of using air conditioning in the summer, try to use fans. We don't have air conditioning in our house. Fans use less energy to run, and they keep you cool because of evaporation. Click here to find out more.

Summit #5: Cannon Mountain

2008-05-27T20:12:00.005-04:00

This past weekend I reached my half way point of climbing ten 4000-footers this year. My fifth summit of the year was Cannon Mountain, which is 4,100 feet high. We camped at Lafayette Place Campground, at the base of the mountain, with my whole family and my dad's college friend, Jason, and his wife, Jennifer. My dad and I have camped at this campground before, with Jason, last October when we climbed Little Haystack, Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette.

The morning we started on the trail it was very sunny and warm. We took off our sweaters before we even got a half mile up the trail. It was interesting to be climbing a mountain with no snow on the trail, since my first four mountains this year all had a lot of snow. About half way up the trail we reached Lonesome Lake, where my brother, Luke, fell in some deep mud and soaked his socks and shoes. But luckily, we brought along extra socks and shoes in case this kind of thing happened.

The trail around Lonesome Lake was muddy and a little bit snowy, but the view of Franconia Ridge was cool. From the AMC Lonesome Lake Hut we kept hiking around the lake and then up the mountain. Parts of the trail were very steep. My brother, Luke, got a little bit nervous on some of the high, steep parts, but I encouraged him to go on, and I helped him by carrying his hiking poles and telling him what a good job he was doing. My dad gave him a "courage plaster," just like someone once did for me on Mount Katahdin.

We got to the summit about 4 hours after we started. On the top of Cannon Mountain there is a large lookout perch and a tram station, so a lot of the people at the top didn't hike there like we did. The view was really cool. It was really neat to do one of my hikes with my whole family: me, my brother, my mom, and my dad.

We took a different trail going down the mountain. It was really steep. It was so steep in some parts that there was a wooden ladder. Though we didn't see many people on our hike up the mountain, we saw a lot of people on our way down. Most of the people coming up came from the Lonesome Lake Hut. This was the first mountain hike I've been on that I didn't see any dogs.

When we got to the bottom, we walked back to our campsite and then went for a late lunch at Woodstock Station, where I like to always go after a hike in Franconia Notch. I had a Rasberry Daiquiri, and it was really good. After eating, my mom and dad's friends took me and Luke to play miniature golf, and we saw a real live bear cub crouching behind a rock near the golf course.

If you'd like to see some pictures of our hike, click here. Thanks for all of the support and contributions you've been giving me.

Stuff Between Hikes

2008-05-18T19:21:00.008-04:00

Last month I climbed Mount Pierce and Mount Eisenhower. Later this month I'm hoping to climb Cannon Mountain, which is 4,100 feet high and has a huge cliff on one side of it. The cliff used to have a face made out of rock on it called "The Old Man of the Mountain," but it fell off a couple of years ago.

Anyway, between my hikes I do other stuff that kind of has to do with my project. I discovered a neat website called the Greenerator. It's on the Scholastic Kids website and it can give you tips on going green. You can create an account, and get points by keeping score from doing green things. I've gotten some points for things like carrying a reusable water bottle in my backpack, checking out DVDs from my library, and raising money for a green cause (which is this project). It's really fun and if you have kids I bet they would love to do it.

Last weekend I was interviewed by someone who writes for the Appalachian Mountain Club's magazine called AMC Outdoors. They're going to put something about me and my project probably in the June or July issue. When it comes out I'll try to put a link to it.

Between hikes I also like to run or jog with my dad or my papa, to stay in shape for hiking. Today I ran in a 5K race called Evan's Run, which has nothing to do with me. Evan's Run is a fundraising 5K/10K race to help raise money for the Evan Henry Foundation for Autism. My brother, Lucas, ran in the 1/4 mile race, and he got a ribbon. My race time was 34 minutes and 48 seconds. My papa ran with me and came in 2 seconds after me, but not because he's slow. My dad raced in the 5K too, but last year he did the 10K. He came in before me and my papa.

I am really excited about climbing Cannon Mountain, my fifth summit for the project. I'll write a trail report about it when I'm done climbing and post it on my blog site.

Green Tip #3: Don't throw any toxic liquids into the grass or woods. It can hurt the plants and trees very easily, and can pollute the water in the ground. I'm doing my science project this spring about plants and toxic chemicals. I have six plants and six liquids: water, coca-cola, motor oil, anti-freeze, Windex, and dish soap. I'm going to see how the liquids affect the plants.

Summits #3 & #4: Mts Pierce & Eisenhower

2008-04-27T17:42:00.011-04:00

Yesterday I climbed two 4000-footers, so now I've climbed four mountains this year. I climbed Mount Pierce, which is 4,310 feet, and Mount Eisenhower, which is 4,780 feet. They are both in the Presidential Range. Early in the morning we went to the AMC Highland Center with my brother and my mom and we had a good breakfast. We took a "Green Tour" of the center the day before our hike, and learned how Highland Center does good things for the environment, like a lot of recycling, composting, good insulation, compact florescent lightbulbs, and there are more windows on the south side than on the north side for heat and light.

After breakfast, my dad and I started up the trail. To get up to Mount Pierce we hiked up the Crawford Path, which is the oldest footpath in the United States. The trail was very wet because it's spring and everything is melting, but there is still a lot of snow. For a lot of the trail we had to walk along the "monorail," which is like a big snowy balance beam. The monorail is the packed down snow in the middle of the trail that doesn't melt as fast as everything else, and if you step off of it, you fall into deep snow. Me and my dad did that a couple of times.

On the trail we saw a really good view of the Mount Washington Resort, and when we got above the treeline we could see Mount Washington. It took us three hours to get to the summit of Mount Pierce (which is sometimes called Mount Clinton).

From Mount Pierce we decided to go to Mount Eisenhower which is about a mile and a half away, because the weather was so nice. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the top of Mount Eisenhower, and the trail along the ridge was really beautiful and reminded me of when we hiked the Franconia Ridge trail last October. The trail between these peaks is part of the Appalachian Trail. It was very windy going up and at the top of Mount Eisenhower, so we didn't stay at the summit very long.

Then we started to head back to Mount Pierce, which we had to cross again to get back down to the Highland Center (so, sort of, we actually climbed three mountains in one day! in the snow! but we'll just count it as two.) On the way down the monorail felt like it went on forever. My dad called it a "three-mile-long balance beam." The snow bridges that we used on the way up to cross small streams were melting and breaking on our way down.

We got back to the Highland Center about 8 1/2 hours after we started. The whole trip to both mountains and back was 9.2 miles. I felt great when I got back down. To see more photos from our hike yesterday, click here and enjoy the slideshow.

Instead of a "Green Tip" today, I'm doing a hiking tip. Hiking Tip: The key to climbing with a buddy is communication. If you are tired, hungry, thirsty, have to go to the bathroom, or want to play a game, communicate with your hiking partner and tell them. It will make your trip safer and more fun. Your buddy can't read minds.

The South Shore's Radio Station: WATD-FM

2008-04-22T19:26:00.003-04:00

Last year my Nana and Papa bid on and won a guest talk spot on a radio station, WATD-FM, 95.9. Yesterday was the day that they decided to do it, and they let me go with them to talk about my project. It was really fun. The DJ was Cathy Dee and she was really nice. The studio room had a really cool microphone and spinning chairs. If you'd like to listen to me on the radio and what I said, click here.

This weekend we're planning to climb Mount Pierce and, if we have time, Mount Eisenhower. If you've climbed either of those mountains, please email me with some tips. We were going to climb Mount Tom and Mount Field, but our friend Jason climbed them last week and said the trails are really hard with all of the melting snow. So we changed our plans. We will give you a report when we're done.

Earth Day Green Tip, Tip #2: Go outside or to a nearby park or beach and pickup some trash. Put the trash in trash cans or trash bags. It will help the earth a ton. Me and my brother did that today at the school where my mom works. And last year we went to a beach and picked up trash. Have fun!

These Boots Were Made for Hiking

2008-04-11T20:03:00.004-04:00

I have another cool sponsor for my project. Their name is Hi-Tec and they make awesome hiking boots (a lot better than my old ones that we got from a store that we won't name). Hi-Tec sent me a new pair of Altitude IV hiking boots and also a certificate for a free pair of boots. Instead of having another eBay auction, my Papa bought the certificate for even more money than the boots cost in a store, and the money went to my project. The reason my Papa bought these boots is because he will probably be coming on one of my hikes in the spring. I hope he can keep up with me because I'm really fast. We're planning to climb Mount Field and Mount Tom -- both 4000-footers -- in a couple of weeks, and I can't wait to try out my new hiking boots.

Even though I have got a lot of nice donations from hiking companies, almost all of the money I've raised so far came from family and friends -- each one just giving a little bit. So I'd just like say thank you, again, for all of your help.

So that we can save energy, I thought it would be fun to try going without electricity for five hours tomorrow, Saturday. Between 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM, we're not going to use anything in the house that uses electricity (except the fridge, of course, because my mom tells me that the food will spoil).

On all of my blog postings from now on I will have a Green Tip. If you have any good ideas for Green Tips, please email me.

Green Tip #1: To save energy, try to go without electricity for at least two hours per week. If you want to try more and it's OK with your family, go ahead and try it.

The New Logo

2008-04-02T20:16:00.009-04:00

My project finally has the logo that I told you about in my January 21st blog posting. It was designed by Jeff Stammen of LittleBigBird Design (info@littlebigbird.com) and he is also a friend of my dad's. Jeff started designing the logo way back in January. Some of the ideas had trees, some had mountains, and some just had words. My parents and I talked about the logos with Jeff and then Jeff worked on our favorite ones some more. When he finally got the best one we all loved it! And then we asked him to add some color to it. To see how he did it and what some of the other ideas look like, click here.

We might put the logo on patches, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and stickers. Maybe we can sell stuff with my logo on it and the money can go to my project for my school. Please check back on my blog every once in a while to see if we're selling any logo stuff.

I really want to thank Jeff for working so hard on my project logo. I really love it, and I hope if my brother or I do another big fundraising project, he designs a logo for that too.

JetBoil Sponsorship & Auction

2008-03-24T19:33:00.012-04:00

I have been sponsored by another company that makes hiking stuff. The company's name is JetBoil and they are from New Hampshire where I do most of my hiking and mountain climbing. JetBoil sent me two camping stoves, four fuel tanks, and a T-shirt. One of the stoves I'll be taking on some of my long hikes so that I can make hot chocolate and noodles (though not mixed together). The other stove, which has a coffee press, is being auction off on eBay. The money from the auction will go to my project. The stoves are really awesome. I feel really lucky that JetBoil is helping me reach my fundraising goal. To check out the auction, just click here. Do you need an awesome camping stove?

Summit #2: Mount Jackson

2008-03-16T10:54:00.017-04:00

I've climbed another 4000-footer! Its called Mount Jackson and it is 4,052 feet high. Mount Jackson is in the Presidential Range of mountains. When we climbed Mount Tecumseh in January I didn't have a lot of energy because I didn't eat breakfast, so this time we ate a huge breakfast beforehand at the AMC Highland Center Lodge. I had four sausages, scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, orange juice, and cereal. Now THAT's a good breakfast! It really helped and I had a lot of energy all day.

When we started out the hike it was snowing and foggy. Cars blew wet snow in our faces as we walked down the road toward the trail head. We were the first ones up the trail, so the snow was deep and fluffy because it snowed the night before, and we had to pack it down. On our way up the mountain we played a fun game. First you pick a subject, like "animals," then someone says an animal name, like "octopus," and then the next person has to say an animal name that begins with the last letter of the word before, like "snake," or "sea gull." And so on.

We got to the summit about 3 1/2 hours after we started. It was really foggy and we couldn't see any other mountains, which is too bad because usually there's a great view of Mount Washington. My dad took a bunch of pictures of me, but we forgot to bring the earth flag, so we couldn't take a picture of that. We'll remember next time. About ten minutes after we were on the summit some other people came up. Their names were Ken, Janice, and Meg, their border collie dog. We told them about my Summits for My School project and we gave them a copy of my letter. They told another hiker, named David, and his son about my project, and on the way down the mountain when they passed me, David gave me $20 for my school.

Before we left the summit we were thinking of also hiking to Mount Pierce from Mount Jackson, to do two 4000-footers in one day. But the snow was too deep and it probably would've been very late when we got back down.

My favorite part of the hike was when we saw some of Mount Jackson's famous Canadian Jays. We were walking down the mountain and we heard a bird call. We said, "Oh, maybe that's one of the jays." Then my dad took the bread out of my backpack that we took from the restaurant the night before. I put some of it in my hand and the jays landed right on my hand (and now I'm thinking that I should've put some bread on my head) and ate it. My dad got some great pictures of the jays. They are not zoomed in. The birds love hikers and were really that close.

About six and a half hours after we started we got back down, safely, to the bottom of the mountain. Then we walked back to the Highland Center lodge, took off all of our gear (except for our clothing, of course) and went inside for snacks and drinks. Then we got in the car and drove home.

If you'd like to see more really good pictures of the hike, click here.

LEKI Auction Results

2008-03-11T06:14:00.003-04:00

POSTING BY EVAN'S DAD: The winning bid on the trekking poles, donated to Evan by LEKI, was $101.00. That money has been added to the funds raised by Evan so far. LEKI was also kind enough to send him a pair of poles to use on his lengthy summit hikes, one of which we'll attempt this coming weekend up in very, very snowy New Hampshire.

Evan has some other exciting news that he'd like to share with you, including another upcoming auction, a neat website he and his mother discovered, and some positive movement at his school in "going green." But I'll let him tell you about that stuff, and will encourage him to post to his blog in the next couple of days.

David (Evan's Dad)

Company Sponsors & an Auction

2008-03-02T11:59:00.010-05:00

Another company has decided to sponsor me. The company name is LEKI and they make really good trekking poles (a lot better than my old ones). They sent me 3 pairs of trekking poles: 1 pair for me to use on my climbs, 1 pair for my brother (who will come with me on some of the hikes), and 1 pair that is being auctioned on eBay so that the money can go to my project (click here to see the auction listing). LEKI also sent me 4 hats and a ton of brochures. When we go on hikes, my dad will take photos of me using the LEKI trekking poles, and we'll send the pictures to the company.

Two other companies helped me out by donating some money, so I put their logos on my blog site as sponsors. The companies are Peterson-Architecture, from Arizona, and Subaru Planet, in Hanover, Massachusetts. The owner of Subaru Planet is going green with his company, so he thinks what I'm doing is important and good for the environment.

If you know any other companies that might be interested in my project, please mention it to them.

MORE Things are Happening

2008-02-24T15:25:00.002-05:00

We haven't been climbing in February because up in New Hampshire in the White Mountains it's very cold and the snow is very deep. Also, February was very busy because I had a big project at school, and because we went on a long vacation to Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. But, we are planning to climb another mountain in March. We don't know which mountain or date yet, because it will depend on the weather. I'd like to climb Mount Moosilauke, but the road to the trailhead is usually not plowed. My Dad is thinking that we may climb Mount Jackson.

On the night of February 12 I went to a meeting of the South Shore Charter Educational Foundation and I talked about my project. They changed the agenda just for me! The meeting was at a nice restaurant in Hull, MA, and the mints tasted awesome.

The Director of my school is the Chair of the Educational Foundation, and she is organizing a special "Green" committee at my school. The committee will talk about and decide how to do things for the school that are good for the environment. The people on the committee will be teachers, parents, community leaders, and kids. I've been asked to be on the committee as a student representative.

For all of the donors and blog-lookers, I want to share some of my hiking photos from last year, which includes Mount Monadnock, Mount Katahdin, Mount Greylock, Mount Lafayette, Mount Lincoln, and Little Haystack Mountain. Most of these are 4000-footers. If you'd like to check them out, go to my Summits Photos Site (click here).

So far we have raised almost $2800, which is awesome! Donations haven't been coming in the mail as much as they used to, so if you know anyone who would be interested in this project, please tell them and pass my blog site onto them. They can either donate online by clicking on the ChipIn thing on the right side of this page, or they can download and print this letter and mail it to me. Thanks very much.

Halfway or One-Tenth?

2008-02-09T07:16:00.001-05:00

POSTING BY EVAN'S DAD: In just one month, Evan has reached 50% of his fundraising goal, thanks to the support of so many family, friends, and even strangers that have donated to his project and his school. But even more wonderful than the money has been the outpouring of encouraging letters, cards, and kind words. With every donation comes a note of support and a “Way to go, Evan!” Other parents from Evan’s school have told us that this project has inspired them to get their own family outdoors, and has shown them that little kids really can walk for miles and miles (if you let them, and do it with them).

This project of Evan’s has taken off in a direction we didn’t plan, and has made connections we never imagined. It’s been a fascinating learning experience – again, in just one month!

Thus far, Evan has hiked only one of the ten peaks to which he has set his goal. We’re planning for his next in March. He understands that people are supporting him with dollars, turning his goal into a commitment. Bethany and I have no doubt that he’ll achieve it. Thank you all, so much, for helping Evan’s efforts reach so high in such a short amount of time.

David (Evan's dad)

Summit #1: Mount Tecumseh

2008-01-27T13:04:00.003-05:00

TRIP REPORT, BY EVAN: I've just climbed my first 4000-footer of the year! Mount Tecumseh. It's 4003 feet tall, which means it's the shortest of the 4000-footers. Even though Tecumseh is the shortest of the 4000-footers, it was my hardest mountain yet. That's because of all of the snow there was, and how cold it was. It was very cold at the top, and it felt like my fingers were frozen.

On the hike I saw a lot of things. I saw two dogs, and one was wearing a backpack. I saw three downhill skiers on the trail we were on (I don't think they were allowed to be there). Tecumseh is on the same mountain where there is a skiing place, called Waterville Valley. On the way down from the top, I thought that I might want to take a chairlift down because I was really tired, but there was one problem: if the chairlift people did let us go down, we'd have to walk across the ski area, which isn't a good idea. Anyway, by the time we got down to where the chairlifts are, we were more than halfway down, and I had changed my mind.

I'm really proud that I've started this project and now since so many people have donated money, I'm committed to doing it. One mountain down, nine more to go!

Here are some pictures of the trip . The first one is me and my dad at the summit, holding a flag of the earth. One of my Nana's friends gave me the flag with her donation, and suggested that I hold it up at the top of each mountain. To see more pictures of our hike yesterday, click here.

The Patriot Ledger

2008-01-24T20:07:00.001-05:00

A reporter from the Patriot Ledger, a local newspaper, put me in her newspaper today. If you would like to see the article, click here. My mom picked up five copies of the newspaper, and my Nana picked up three. This will be something to remember during my project, and for years to come.

Things are Happening

2008-01-21T10:26:00.000-05:00

A lot of people have been finding out about my project. Last Friday I told all of the kids in my level (grades 3 & 4) about the project during our "town meeting," and I gave copies of my donation letter to the kids in my class. A local newspaper, the Patriot Ledger, found out about my project and they are going to interview me (they were supposed to interview me this morning, but the writer got sick). Something really exciting that happened was that a man from a backpack company called Cilogear, in Brooklyn, NY, called me and asked if he could sponsor me because he is interested in the good thing that I'm doing for my school. He said that he would give me one of his backpacks to auction off and give the money to my project (when that happens, I'll put a link for the auction on my blog).

One of my dad's coworkers, who is a graphic designer, is making a logo for my project. So, be ready to see it on the website. And my mom said that maybe we can make t-shirts with the logo on them.

We're already planning my first summit hike for the year. If the weather is OK, I'm going to try and climb Mt. Tecumseh next weekend. At 4,003 feet, it is the lowest of the "4000-footers," but since it's winter we're trying to do ones that are pretty safe. Here's a picture of me preparing for really cold weather. If I make it to the summit, there will be a blog posting about my trip, and I'm sure my dad will take lots of pictures (I think he takes too many pictures.)

I've already made over $1000 for the South Shore Charter Educational Foundation through my project, and I really want to thank everyone who helped me make over $1000.

Sending Letters

2008-01-15T19:29:00.000-05:00

I've been sending letters to some of my friends and family. Here is a picture of me addressing envelopes. My mom taught me how to fold the letters to fit inside the envelopes, and she helped me put on the return address labels. Instead of licking the envelopes, I taped them. I don't really like the taste of envelopes. My dad licked some of them (I think he likes the taste). Me, my brother, and my dad walked to the Post Office after a big snowstorm and we put the letters into the mailbox. Boy, my friends and family are going to be surprised when they see what I'm doing. If you need more information, scroll down to an earlier blog posting, and you will see a picture of the letter. You can just click on it to see it. If you would like to send it, you can just print out the letter.

Sad News

2008-01-10T21:54:00.001-05:00

Sir Edmund Hillary died today. He was 88 years old, and he lived in New Zealand. Edmund Hillary was one of my favorite hikers. He was the first person to climb Mount Everest. But he couldn’t have done it without his buddy, Tenzing Norgay. At the top of Everest, Tenzing buried lollipops, chocolate, and a blue pencil from his daughter. Hillary buried a cross, that the head of the expedition asked him to bury there if he made it to the top. On the top of Everest for a snack they ate chocolate mint cake with lemonade.

I have a book about them. It’s called “To the Top of Mount Everest.” I’ve read it five times, and I learned that after the two friends climbed Everest, Edmund Hillary led an expedition to search for the Yeti. The Yeti is a giant snow monster. Some people call it the Abominable Snowman. My dad and I are going to climb a mountain in February. I hope we don’t see any Yeti….or even their tracks.

A Lot to Learn

2008-01-10T21:46:00.000-05:00

POSTING BY EVAN’S DAD: Doing good takes a lot of work – a lot of bureaucratic work. Following his plan, Evan ran this project idea by his school’s Executive Director. He set up his bank account earlier this week, specifically for the project, and he wrote a letter explaining that he’d be donating the money to his school. It turns out that’s not enough, and that we’re fairly ignorant about the complexities involved in setting up a charitable event or organization.

Wanting to make sure that this project of Evan’s is on the up-and-up, following all of the rules and meeting all legal requirements, this morning I spoke with an extremely friendly, helpful gentleman at the Attorney General’s office. In short, since we haven’t registered Summits for My School as a charitable organization, we really shouldn’t be soliciting funds for Evan and putting them in a bank account. We had no idea! But I’m glad I checked. The gentleman suggested that if the money we solicit goes directly to the school, it’ll be OK.

So, late this afternoon I had a meeting with the Business Manager of Evan’s school to come up with a plan. We will be closing the recently-opened bank account (which is a little sad, considering the genuine excitement that Evan got by setting it up), and we’re asking family and friends, who donate money by check to make it out to “South Shore Charter Educational Foundation.” The money can still be mailed to Evan’s address, but he will be physically taking the donations to the Business Manager (sort of in the same way he would’ve been taking them to the bank) to make sure it's earmarked as part of Evan's "Summits for My School" hiking and fundraising project. Similarly, all online donations will be provided to the Foundation.

It looks like we have a lot to learn, and this was a good learning experience. If there’s one thing that Evan’s mom and I want Evan to get out of this project, it’s this: If you come up with a good idea – even if it seems a bit crazy and impossible – you can make it a reality with some hard work and a plan. But you also have to follow the rules.

David (Evan’s dad)

The Donation Letter

2008-01-08T21:43:00.002-05:00

This is a letter that will be mailed to my family and friends. It tells about my project. So, click on the picture to see my letter, and you can print it and send it to anyone who likes hiking and who might want to help me. And in other news!: I opened a special bank account at Rockland Trust especially for this project, so all of the money will be safe until I donate it. The bank account lets me save money for this project. I've already raised $220.

Starting My Project

2008-01-05T10:24:00.000-05:00

On New Year's Eve we were talking about resolutions and goals for 2008. One of my goals is to climb at least ten 4000-footers within the year. A "4000-footer" is a mountain with a summit higher than 4000 feet above sea level, and there are 67 of them in New England. Over half of them are in New Hampshire. Last year I climbed seven mountains, three of which are 4000-footers (one of them was Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, at 5,268 ft.).

My dad and I came up with the idea that I could do this goal as a fundraiser to raise money for my school, and that we could ask friends and family to pledge money for me. My school wants to go "green," which means we use less electricity, do a better job recycling, and help save the planet. So, I thought that we could raise money for the school to help pay for things that will make it "green." We talked to the Executive Director at my school about this idea and she said that it was a great idea. "You've got a 'green' light from me," she said.

Last night, my mom, dad, and I were setting up this website and were trying to think of good names for it. We settled on "summitsformyschool.blogspot.com," but other ideas included these:

evansgreenschooltrek.blogspot.com
timetoclimbformyschool.blogspot.com
givememoneyformyschool.blogspot.com
gototheATMandcomebackwithmoneyforme.blogspot.com
mywebsiteiscoolwithaK.blogspot.com

We're going to spend some time over the weekend working on the website, trying to figure out how to make this fundraiser work.