I wanted to talk about the upcoming event Climb Malawi fundraiser here in Seattle at the Seattle Mountaineers. It’s an event that I have largely been leading to organize and I’m happy to report that it’s finally going to be announced. It’s March 7th from 5:30 PM until 10 PM.
Here is a link to the event page
The Global Climbing Initiative did actually approach me about the project last year, towards the end of last year, and we decided to put it on in March.
If you’re not familiar with the Global Climbing Initiative, the Global Climbing Initiative has been around for a number of years and they are focused on international climbing, specifically building communities. So they do have grants that they give to communities. They do send people overseas as well and fundraise for that, which is what this event is all about. Mario and Genevieve actually went to Malawi, Africa to assist in building the climbing community and making sure that there’s longevity of the program there for locals to actually climb there as well. So they’re doing really great work.
It’s going to be a really amazing event. I’m so excited and dare I say that this is a climbing event unlike any other climbing event that I have actually personally been to in the Seattle area.
This particular event, though not only Black folks; we would love to welcome everyone to come out and see this wonderful film and experience the event. It is going to be Black folks-centered, of course, because that’s the community that we are raising funds for, essentially, over in Malawi.
And it’s complete with a table fair starting at 5:30pm. They’ll be tabling all throughout the night. Come in to see a bunch of great brands who have donated a lot to the raffle that will be happening that night as well. And that’s going to be really wonderful. And then of course, on top of that, at 6:30 PM, after everyone’s been milling around, et cetera, we do have a warm-up panel of all Pacific Northwest, local Black community organizers. And I am so psyched for this panel because there’s a lot of people in the area doing work for the outdoors to be accessible in affinity spaces and out of affinity spaces that I really respect. And I always dreamed about hearing them speak on a panel. And I can’t tell you who it is quite yet, but it’s pretty exciting. I’m excited for these particular people to speak their minds on stage. And I’m going to be emceeing that one, which will be new for me and I’m very excited to do it.
The raffle is at 7 PM. And then at 7:30 we’re going to have the film viewing of the actual film Climb Malawi. Additionally, we are going to have Genevieve Walker and Mario Stanley give a little bit of a chat about their experiences around the film and going to Malawi to teach climbing and to uplift the climbing community out there.
If you’re not familiar with Genevieve Walker and Mario Stanley, I would highly suggest starting to follow them because they’ve been big influences in the climbing community at least the last 10 years. And I say at least because I believe Mario’s been climbing at least 20 plus years. So they’ve been around, they’ve done a lot of things, educators in the community, members of the climbing community and members of the Black climbing community that’s been up and coming as well.
And that one [chat] is going to be emceed by Phil Henderson. Now if you’re not familiar with Phil Henderson, he’s a big name in the industry.
I was first familiar with Phil when he did Full Circle Everest, which if you didn’t know is a full on all Black team that went and summited Mount Everest together and it was pretty unprecedented as well. Phil’s been working in the industry a very, very long time, all three of them professionals, and I’m very excited to be able to bring this to the Seattle. I can’t think of anyone else more perfect than Phil Henderson to emcee this. And he is donating his time to us as well. So a great big shout out to Phil. Thank you so much for doing that.
I cannot wait to have Genevieve and Mario here in person and then if you have ever heard Phil Henderson talk, I could listen to that person talk forever.
If you haven’t had a chance to be in their physical presence, it’s a really wonderful thing. And we’re going to have such a concentration of amazing people at this event talking, collaborating, showing up and tabling, hanging out. It’s going to be really wonderful. So hope to see you there. You can get your tickets here and a big shout out the Mountaineers, SBP [Seattle Bouldering Project], the Washington Climbers Coalition, and Full Circle Expeditions, Incorporated, for lending either resources, time, effort, energy, and or space to be able to make this event the very best that it could possibly be.
It means the world to us and it’s going to be really fantastic.
Additionally, y’all know me, this started really small. It just kept growing and growing and growing. Additionally, there’s going to be some other smaller events, kind of appetizers, if you will, that are leading up to the main event. And it’s going to be announced at a later date. Also, the panelists for the local Pacific Northwest Black panel that I’m going to be emceeing, we will also announce later who’s going to be on that panel, but trust me, you are not going to want to miss this. People doing such good work and being able to hear them speak on it is going to be such a powerful thing that you do not want to miss. But if you’re not able to make it 7:30 PM, film viewing, main event, Mario and Genevieve and Phil, but I’m telling you that local panel is something not to miss either.
So stay tuned, we will be announcing additional appetizer events a little bit later that go right along with this event too, and I’m very excited about them, tune in later for more.
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