Team Everest ’03 Calls for Mt. Everest Disability Team
Celebrates Major Climb in Africa
AUSTIN, TEXAS March 19, 2002
The Coalition of Texans with Disabilities (CTD) announced the release
of applications to join its Team Everest ’03 expedition to
Mt. Everest, while celebrating the summitting of Mt. Kilimanjaro
by expedition leader Gary Guller. CTD and Guller are putting together
a team of people with various disabilities to make a historic Mt.
Everest ascent in the spring of 2003.
“By working as a team and ascending to the 17,388’
base of the world’s highest peak, Team Everest ’03 will
challenge the myth that people with disabilities are not strong
and capable. We’re looking for 15 people to join and send
a message to the world that there really is unlimited potential
to work, play and have a full life if you live with a disability.
It is time for us to shatter the assumptions and discrimination
still held by so many citizens,” says CTD Executive Director
Dennis Borel
Internationally known mountaineer and amputee Guller recently
returned to Austin after successfully reaching the summit of Mt.
Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on February 22, 2002. The Kilimanjaro expedition
is Stage One of Team Everest ‘03, an 18-month campaign promoting
50 years of progress in advancing the conditions of people with
disabilities, while paralleling next year’s much-anticipated
50th anniversary of the first summit of Mt. Everest. “We took
the message to the top of Africa. Next we’ll take it to the
top of the Americas, and finally to the top of the world in 2003,”
said Guller. He will also climb Mt. Everest as the climactic event
of Team Everest ’03.
CTD plans to display the Team Everest ’03 banner flown at
Kilimanjaro’s summit and introduce the first Team Everest
’03 Team Members at their annual Kenny Murgia Memorial Scholarship
Awards Event at the Omni Southpark Hotel in Austin from 6-8 p.m.
on Thursday, April 18, 2002. Disability advocates from across the
state will convene in Austin to attend this event, where a Texas
high school senior with a disability will be awarded a college scholarship.
Interested persons should contact Project Director Dennis Borel
at (512) 478-3366 or dborel@teameverest03.org or visit the team
website www.teameverest03.org.
Media advisory: Photos and media kit available
upon request.
Press Contact:
Dennis Borel
Project Director
(512) 478-3366
info@teameverest03.org
www.teameverest03.org
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