Climb for the Kids 2022

Thank you for donating to our 8th Climb for the Kids! St Jude will receive over $54,000 to directly fight childhood cancer. As St Jude’s founder Danny Thomas said, “No child should die in the dawn of life.” Treatments developed at St Jude are allowing kids to beat cancer and thrive as they climb their own personal summits. Helping kids live full and healthy lives is our motivation.

In August, our team summitted the highest peak in Ecuador to raise funding and awareness for kids battling cancer and life-threatening illnesses. Participants went down to South America to summit Chimborazo, the closest point to the sun at 20,549′, to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Climb for the Kids 2022

Over $54,000 donated to St. Jude!

Event Details

Dates: August 16 – 20
Location: Chimborazo Peak near Quito, Ecuador
Difficulty: Very difficult. Requires prior technical glacier experience.
Entry Fee: $2,250 (travel & technical mountain rentals not included)
Fundraising Minimum: $5,000 per participant

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“We actually roll up our sleeves and fight for the causes we believe in.”

Ryan Kelley

Founder of The Home Loan Expert & The Keep Climbing Foundation

How it all began

While going through a particularly trying path in his career, Ryan Kelley, Founder of The Home Loan Expert, spent time volunteering in a local children’s hospital, helping kids going through the hardest times.

In their presence, Kelley gained a life-altering perspective and decided to find a way to have a bigger impact on the children he’d met. He landed on an unorthodox fundraising plan: climb Mt. Rainer to raise donations directly for charities. From that first climb in 2015, Climb for the Kids was born and is now an annual fundraiser.

As in every year previous, 100% of donations go to charitable causes thanks to support from The Home Loan Expert.

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Partners since 2015

Our chosen charities all help children fighting serious illness or strive to empower children to live their best lives. We have proudly raised funds for:

Team Alec Forever

Team Alec Forever’s mission is to financially help childhood cancer families with end of life expenses, who are treated in the St. Louis area. No one should ever have to go through this. Our greatest wish is for this to never again be needed. Our prayer will ALWAYS be for a world without childhood cancer. We continue to fight for that to become reality. Until then, we will fund raise to financially support families going through this horrible disease. Surviving the loss of a child is hard enough. Help us, help these families in memory of Alec Ingram.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

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.

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Ronald McDonald House Charities

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.

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Friends of Kids with Cancer

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.

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Girls on the Run St. Louis

Inspires girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.

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Girls on the Run Rockies

Inspires girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running.

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Fight DMD

Funds research to help find a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare genetic disease that weakens the muscles over time.

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Isaac Bruce Foundation

Reaches out to youth and teaches them at an early age the importance of a healthy lifestyle with a focus on education.

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Crowns Fight Cancer

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.

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