Filed Under Hike With A Cause
Way back in February I blogged about fellow friend and geek, Joe Frambach, who was going to hike the Appalachian Mountain Trail in 100 hundred days. That’s 2,174 miles! This hike was not only to challenge himself but to also help raise money for a given charity. At the time he choose PAWS. In addition to online “cyber” charity, he has been attempting to run charity events in the real world. Unfortunately, PAWS continuously refused to help him in any fashion. A direct quote from the PAWS contact was “We’re just gonna sit back and collect the money”. Frustrated and displeased with PAWS, Joe decided to drop them and instead switched to Gilda’s Club Western Pennsylvania.
Gilda’s club is a non-profit organization that provides a meeting place for men, women and children living with cancer, along with their families and friends, to join with others and build social and emotional support as a supplement to medical care. The name is in honor of Saturday Night Live comedian Gilda Radner who died of ovarian cancer.
Gilda has been extremely helpful. They are enthusiastic about Joe’s hike and have offered to help find volunteers for any event Joe plans to aid fundraising. Suffice to say, Joe is happier. For those that already donated, myself included, Joe has assured me that your money didn’t just disappear. Because of the charity switch, his donation bar (top left of my blog) had to be reset. The original PAWS money raised has been instead sent into Gilda. Hope no one was too keen on that money going to PAWS.
Since it’s been awhile and for any new readers, I’ll just ask again to help Joe out and donate some money. He plans on starting May 1st, just after he graduates with a BS in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Throughout the duration of the trek, he will keep a journal with him at all times. He will attempt to meet many people and log their stories and their reasons for hiking, alongside his own narration of the trail. He’s also offering a copy of the journal upon completion. Check out his Firstgiving site for all the details.
Info:
Joe Frambach
Computer Science and Applied Mathematics
University of Pittsburgh ‘08
Hike With A Cause: 2174 Miles in 100 Days
Sponsor Me: www.firstgiving.com/hikewithacause
HWAC Email: hikewithacause@gmail.com
Resident Assistant: Tower B 1017
Pitt Outdoors Club: www.pittoutdoors.com
Pitt Circle K: www.pitt.edu/~sorc/circlek
WWW: www.pitt.edu/~jrf27
Email: jrf27(at)pitt(dot)edu
AIM: joeframbach
This post currently has 6 Comments
There’s a cancer-charity named in honor of Gilda Radner??? That’s too @#$%ing cool!!! They’ve even got her caricature on their logo!
I miss Gilda. She was so much joy. It’s so cool that there’s something like this to carry on her jovial spirit.
I believe Gilda was before my time as I never heard of her and after Googling some pics, she definitely doesn’t look familiar.
Ah, you know you have computers on your mind when you type “Application” instead of “Appalachian”
You mean it’s not the Application Trail? DAMN!! :)
Gilda was great.
Ugg. Thanks guys. I lost count of how many times i proof read that too.