It all started when Foundation founder Ryan Kelley decided to transform his newfound passion for the outdoors into a mission for a greater cause. He invited friends to join him in climbing mountains to raise money and awareness for Alec, a young boy battling cancer.
In 2015, Ryan climbed Mt. Rainier and raised $14,000 for Friends of Kids with Cancer. Since then, we’ve been setting goals higher and higher each year.
Our fundraising occurs before each climb, but the climbs themselves are our opportunity to spread awareness. Our aim is to grow these climbs annually, encouraging more people to join us. By leveraging the stunning mountain vistas, we highlight significant causes and inspire others to take action.
At nine years old, Alec was diagnosed with osteosarcoma bone cancer and bravely fought the disease for years overcoming relapse after relapse until his heart failed in 2019 at just 14-years-old. Alec was an early inspiration for Climb for the Kids. Through the Climb and his parents’ creation of the Team Alec Forever Foundation, a nonprofit which helps ease end of life expenses for families of children with terminal cancers, Alec continues to inspire.
The energy, passion, and motivation for every Keep Climbing Foundation climb is helping children. They face incredibly challenging obstacles, and we want them to be supported, encouraged, and succeed. We will climb any summit to help.
Using the stunning backdrops of nature’s most breathtaking peaks, we capture attention and bring awareness to causes that matter. Our fundraising climbs raise money for children in need, while our climbers educate their communities about the issues these vulnerable groups face.
We climb for so much more than the challenge. We climb for the kids. We climb to fight cancer. We climb to keep families close, to provide support to those in need, and to inspire those around us.
The Keep Climbing Foundation has organized numerous climbs over the years. From our annual Climb for the Kids to guided multi-day hikes on some of our nation’s top trails, we are dedicated to raising funds and awareness for our incredible partners.
Join us in helping people from all walks of life reach their personal summits and overcome life’s obstacles.
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St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago.
An organization that has served over 400,000 families since its inception, Fisher House is focused on supporting military and veteran families in a variety of ways, including providing comfort homes where military & veteran families can stay free of charge while a loved one is in the hospital.
Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) believes when families are together, they cope better, and that no family should have to deal with their child’s medical crisis alone. The mission of RMHC is to create, find, and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children and their families.
Friends of Kids with Cancer is devoted to enriching the daily lives of children undergoing treatment for, and survivors of, cancer and blood-related diseases.
Inspires girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.
The Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation works jointly on the legacy that Elizabeth established with Crowns Fight Cancer. As a childhood cancer warrior, Elizabeth advocated for those that couldn’t by utilizing her crown to change how the world viewed pediatric cancer.
First Descents provides life-changing outdoor adventures for young adults (ages 18 – 39) impacted by cancer and other serious health conditions.
Inspires girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.
Focused not just on the health of kids today but on the long-term health of the communities it serves.
Funds research to help find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare genetic disease that weakens the muscles over time.
Your support is helping children find healing from their battle from cancer and life-threatening illness.
100% of your gift goes toward helping
others overcome obstacles
to realize their personal summits.
We understand.
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