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Climbing for kids: Mentor hopes to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro on second try

As someone who’s endured his share of adversity and guided students through it, Kurt Kannemeyer has another mountain to climb.It just happens to be one of the world’s tallest.The Ossining, New York, resident tried last year to reach the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, but health setbacks during the climb halted his ascent at 17,000 feet — short of the 19,341-foot summit. With a second
Kurt Kannemeyer
As someone who’s endured his share of adversity and guided students through it, Kurt Kannemeyer has another mountain to climb. It just happens to be the world’s tallest.Courtesy of Kurt Kannemeyer

As someone who’s endured his share of adversity and guided students through it, Kurt Kannemeyer has another mountain to climb.

It just happens to be one of the world’s tallest.

Kurt Kannemeyer
A South African native who now calls New York home, Kurt Kannemeyer last year made it to the 17,000-foot mark of Mount Kilimanjaro, short of its 19,341-foot summit.Today

The Ossining, New York, resident tried last year to reach the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, but health setbacks during the climb halted his ascent at 17,000 feet — short of the 19,341-foot summit. With a second attempt slated for January, he is hoping the hype surrounding his climb will translate into donations to build a new dormitory at St. Christopher’s, a suburban New York City school for teens with emotional, behavioral and learning disabilities.

“They’ve had their fair share of hurdles, their fair share of mountains thrown at them,” Kannemeyer, 37, told TODAY.com. “I cannot believe that they are still standing.”

As a person of color raised in the South African city of Port Elizabeth, he witnessed inequality due to racial segregation, but found inspiration in former South African President Nelson Mandela.

“I saw a lot of the riots, a lot of the burning of buildings in my area,” he said. “It took one man’s release from captivity for me to realize that if Nelson Mandela could live the life he did, then surely, I can.”

Fascinated by what he’d seen of the United States on television, Kannemeyer spent the summers of 2001 and 2002 as a camp counselor in Ohio, Wisconsin and Rhode Island. In 2003, he began working as director of camp services for St. Christopher’s, in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He’s been with that school ever since, now serving as its director of development.

“I grew up in the ghetto in South Africa, and didn’t have it easy,” he said. “Our kids [at St. Christopher’s] have it 10 times worse than what I’ve had, and I’ve had an awesome responsibility to be a torchbearer.”

Last year, while sitting in on a classroom lesson about endurance, he had an epiphany while listening to his students’ stories of overcoming adversity.

Kurt Kannemeyer
Kannemeyer, far right, works as a development director at a suburban New York City school for kids with special needs, and says he's motivated by them to make it to the top of Kilimanjaro.Today

“[I wanted] to show the kids that if you put your mind to any dream — if you dream hard enough, if you work at it — you can achieve anything, no matter how big the mountain might be,” Kannemeyer said. “So, I went back to the office, and I told some of my friends, ‘I’m going to climb a mountain.’”

Mount Kilimanjaro would be his first assignment.

The St. Christopher’s curriculum has since incorporated assignments on Kilimanjaro, the culture of Tanzania and other related lesson plans. But for students like 17-year-old Isaiah Williams, interest in Kannemeyer’s mission isn’t limited to the educational.

“He’s always there for us if we ever need anything,” Williams told TODAY.com. “His door is always open. You can talk to him about anything and everything. You can tell that his passion is always for us.”

In the months leading up to Kannemeyer’s first ascent in August 2013, he didn’t hire a formal trainer, instead opting to improve his diet and observe how other people trained at a local gym.

“I’m not a climber,” Kannemeyer admitted. “I don’t like working out.”

While his unorthodox training and a photo of his students on a class trip pushed him to the 17,000-foot mark of Kilimanjaro, a breakdown at that altitude forced him to end his journey there.

“My heart was already racing at an elevated rate for some time leading up to the climb,” he recalled. “I had a splitting headache, throbbing all around my head. I was nauseous to the extent that every sip of water I would just [vomit] back up, and my body couldn’t retain anything. I was still going to push up, but [an expedition partner] said, ‘Kurt, the mountain will always be here, people who make unwise decisions won’t.’”

He started training with Sarah Benischek at Club Fit in Briarcliff, New York, to better prepare for a second climb this spring, but those plans were abandoned so he could handle family matters. Among them were tending to his mother, Gladys, who’d battled breast cancer twice, succumbing on July 31.

Kurt Kannemeyer
Kannemeyer says he's motivated by his mother, who died earlier this year after a bout with breast cancer.Today

“The [students] are aware that I’m climbing for them, but I’m also climbing for my mom,” he said. “I want to reach the top for her battle, for her own mountain that she faced. When I was [in Africa], a week before she passed, I told her that I was doing this. … And she looked at me – and I’ll never forget the expression on her face — and she said, ‘My son, I’ve always told you never to give up. Don’t give up, for those kids.’ And that brought me to tears.”

Williams said he and his St. Christopher’s classmates are impressed by their mentor’s tenacity.

“It’s just inspirational now that he’s going back,” he said. “The message he puts across to us is that anything is possible. … We will always remember Kurt, and we will never give up on our dreams, because he’s not giving up on his.”

Now that Kannemeyer has had time to mourn, he’s back to training in earnest with Benischek.

“She says, ‘I’m going to kick your butt up that mountain, and we’re going to get there,’” Kannemeyer said. “In Africa, we call it the spirit of Ubuntu: We exist together because of other people, and other people help us achieve our goal.”

Benischek, who also is Club Fit’s regional sports program manager, said Kannemeyer has been working hard to get back into peak climbing condition, “doing a lot of cross-training, cardio with strength — definitely not being light on the weights — because that’s a good way to get into better shape.”

Asked if Kannemeyer will complete his mission, Benischek replied, “Of course.”

Back at St. Christopher’s, Williams agreed, under one condition. “I think he will [make it],” he said with a laugh. “I think he has a little [more] training to do first, though.”

Kannemeyer remains confident.

“It always seems impossible,” he said, “until it’s done.”

Kurt Kannemeyer
Kannemeyer intends to summit Mount Kilimanjaro when he returns in January.Today

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