Donald McKay K-8 School (East Boston, MA)
When Wendy made her first visit to Jim Cleere's class at the Donald McKay K-8 School in East Boston, MA, in the fall of 2006, she thought it was just a one time thing, but the students were amazing. On that first day, they told Wendy everything about MS, COPAXONE® and her mission to climb the Seven Summits. She was blown away by their knowledge, sincerity and honesty, and vowed to return to give them updates on her progress.
That one visit turned into an entire year, and Wendy even took a satellite phone to call the students from the summit of her third mountain, Aconcagua in Argentina. Each year since, Wendy has taken the entire class up a mountain in New Hampshire, called Monadnock, so they can experience what climbing is really like and how it pulls something from you that you didn’t know you had.
The Other Side of Everest Foundation
Wendy has another mountain she's climbing in addition to MS – it may be even more difficult than the Seven Summits and is paramount to her. While Wendy was training in Nepal in 2008, a Sherpa was killed on a difficult mountain pass. He left behind a very young widow and baby. Wendy found out the Sherpa will not often remarry a woman with children, as they don’t want to raise another man's child. The only hope for the widow is help from her family, but this is a very poor region of the world and they have nothing.
With the help of the kids at Donald McKay, Wendy has begun The Other Side of Everest Educational Foundation to raise money to educate the children of Sherpa killed in climbing accidents. She also sends one qualified Sherpa to the Khumbu climbing school so the trade of guiding and the money brought in by trekkers and tourists will flow to the Khumbu region and help improve their lives. When the kids held a school fundraiser in 2009, they raised hundreds of dollars so five Sherpa children would be able to return to school the following fall. Wendy's future hope is to travel around the U.S. and visit schools to teach students about the challenges in life we all face and to elicit the help of children who themselves may not have much. She believes that by learning to give to someone less fortunate, we learn a great deal about ourselves and that education is the key to making the world a better place.