Glenbard East teachers make Everest trek
Many things were among Nicole Miller's list of essentials for her trek to Mount Everest this summer: hiking boots, sleeping bags, chocolate and a film projector.
One of them didn't fit in a backpack.
It just might, however, be among the items that created the most memories.
The $1,000 projector was bound for a school where attendance is a privilege, as is any of the schools in the mountainous Himalaya region. Tuition for one child per year is $200. The typical annual family income in the region is around $365.
Glenbard East teachers Miller and Jana Yetzke decided last year to make the trek to Mount Everest - specifically to Base Camp 1, which comes in at a whopping altitude of 19,900 feet. That was the easy part.
Both, however, wanted it to be more than just a journey about themselves.
They decided to help students at the Khumjung School in the Khumba region of Nepal, and got their own students at Glenbard East High School involved in the project as well. East's Adventure class raised $1,850 simply by selling Tootsie Pops - and the money went toward purchase of the projector, as well as athletic equipment and badly needed school supplies, Yetzke, a chemistry teacher, said.
They also paid to sponsor several children who now will be able to attend Khumjung School, news that was greeted with overwhelming joy in Nepal.
"As we explained through interpretation exactly what was going on, (a mother) fought back the tears knowing that her daughter would get an education," Miller, a physical education teacher, wrote on the blog from Nepal. "We are sponsoring these children for $200 a year and it will change the lives of the entire family."
The women chronicled their journey to the Himalayas as best they could - whenever there was Internet access - at www.educatorsoneverest.blogspot.com.
A third friend who made the trek with them, Jayne Stringfellow, a teacher from Utah, videotaped the experience to make a documentary and the two Glenbard teachers plan to show the film once the school year begins.
The team is expected back in the United States this week.