Lara Langweiler, who graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 2005, will be climbing
Mt. Kilimanjaro in early August, raising money for Team Fox, an initiative of the Michael J. Fox
Foundation, which funds research on Parkinson's Disease.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE MICHAEL J. FOX FOUNDATION
BRATTLEBORO, VT — Lara Langweiler, who graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 2005, will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in early August — for a cause. She will be raising money for Team Fox, an initiative of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which funds research on Parkinson's Disease. Langweiler, who works for the Foundation, hopes to raise $12,000, $10,000 of which has already been raised.
"What's special about Team Fox is there's an anonymous underwriter, so 100 percent of the money that's raised goes straight to research," she noted. "No other foundation has that."
While the climb will be challenging, Langweiler said that it fits with her love of the outdoors, which she got from her family in Brattleboro.
"We would hike Wantastiquet and then we would go camping in Fort Dummer," she recalled. "There are lean-tos in Fort Dummer that we would rent."
Langweiler continued to hike while attending UVM, where she studied Russian and considered pursuing a career in the Foreign Service. She spent three months in Moscow, living with a couple with whom she spoke both English and Russian.
"On weekdays we would speak in Russian to improve my Russian, and on weekends it would be English to improve their English," she recalled. "At the end of my stay, they wrote me a note saying `Good people, no matter what part of the world you're in, are good people.'"
Despite that warm relationship, she decided that Russia was not for her.
"As wonderful as they were, I did not like Moscow," she commented. "It was so dark, so cold and the architecture was cold — it was dreary, unwelcoming, and people could err on the side of being rude."
After graduating from UVM, Langweiler returned to Brattleboro and found an Americorps position with the Windham and Windsor Housing Trust, helping people who had been affected by Tropical Storm Irene.
"It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life," she said. "I didn't have any office experience. They gave me the FEMA list; it was the housing list — people calling about erosion in the land, sediment that shouldn't have been in wells — it was our Unmet Needs list, and there were at least 500 names. They put this spreadsheet in front of me, and my job was to call and say, `I know you called FEMA about your well, and I'm calling to see if your need has been met.' What was amazing was that my bosses at the Housing Trust trusted me — that autonomy, that feeling that I was making a difference.
"It made me really want to show that I was capable of that autonomy, so I started coordinating volunteer projects in different neighborhoods," she continued. "In Glen Park there was a mobile-home wall that was in danger of collapsing from water damage, and one carpenter took time out of his day, pro bono, and we fixed the wall. I really was very nervous, reaching out to people about donating their time. Nobody said no, and people rallied around. What resonated was what an amazing place the greater Brattleboro community is, and what a great program Americorps is. Everyone should do service for their community, even just for a day."
After a few years in the corporate world in Boston, Langweiler decided to move to New York and look for work with a nonprofit organization. She applied to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
"One of my favorite relatives, my aunt Hedy, who was an absolute force of nature, had suffered from Parkinson's Disease," she said. "I saw her tremors. It was hard to watch, but she smiled through it and never let it get the best of her. So I had that familiarity with the disease. I never thought I'd get the job, and it seems like kismet the way it all worked out; I've been working there since April of last year."
She learned about the Kilimanjaro trek during her orientation at the Foundation.
"They said, `We even have people who have climbed Kilimanjaro for Team Fox and we might have another team next year,' and I said, `Sign me up for that," she remembered. "I have to change my outlook, because I thought, That will never happen. I need more positivity. I'm positive I'm going to summit. The positive attitude is everything."
The climb will be a physical and mental challenge.
"Eight days, seven up and one down — eight days with no shower," Langweiler said. "I've heard it's all very manageable except for the night you summit — you wake up at midnight, and you hike for six or seven hours straight in the dark, from 16,000 feet to 19,000, so there's altitude."
She has been training.
"I started by going to the gym two to three days a week," she said. "I was a little naive, thinking I'll just do the treadmill at a steep incline, but a friend said, `You're climbing the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, you need a full-body preparation.' After that I started doing more free-weights and going to a barre class, where you work almost every muscle-group there is. Physically you start feeling stronger, so mentally you start feeling stronger. I feel like I'm physically prepared, but I think it's mental, that last night, and want to make sure my mind doesn't quit before my body does."
She has also been getting equipment — in Brattleboro.
"I'm going to have a day pack, which is going to be 15 to 20 pounds, and porters will carry 30 pounds," she explained "I got my daypack here at Sam's — we got the sleeping-bag, the sleeping-pad, and hiking poles too. Nicholas, the sales associate, knew everything. We had random questions and he was like, `You can find it here.'"
She has been training with an older couple.
"The gentleman has Parkinson's himself," Langweiler noted. "They're going to be doing the climb, so we climbed Mt. Washington together. The gentleman is an absolute inspiration. He loves hiking, and his limp isn't very noticeable. The symptoms aren't there when you hike, and fitness is absolutely key. He and his wife has been so supportive. If he can do that, and I'm sitting there complaining about aches and pains, I need to check in with myself."
She is enthusiastic about the work of the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
"We don't have an endowment — all the money goes straight to research," she said. "Their goal is to go out of business. We want to close our doors. When I'm working with the patients and seeing the people who are directly affected by what we're doing, it's something that isn't easy mentally, but once again I'm feeling like I'm making a difference.
"I work in Human Resources. It can be very administrative," she commented. "I'm not out in the patient community as much as I'd like. One gentleman was looking around as we were eating lunch. His symptoms were very evident — he had the tremors and gait issues, and he came over and said, `I know you guys are behind the scenes, but you have to know everything you do makes such a difference to me.' That moment will always stick with me."
Her commitment has driven her fundraising effort.
"At this point I have over 90 donors — one major donation and that's been it," she said. "The average donation is about $25. Fundraising reached a plateau, and I was worried that I wouldn't make it, and then people would reach out and say, `My grandmother has Parkinson's, and I just sent this to my whole family and we appreciate what you're doing.' So now when I climb I have 90 people who are like, `We believe in you and believe in the cause,' and that`s going to be a strong motivator for me,. Now I'm going to think, I'm going to get to that $12,000, I'm going to get to that summit. How far I've come already is already transforming the way I think about things. And even if I don't summit, raising over $10,00 for Parkinson's is enough."
To contribute to Lara Langweiler's fundraiser for Team Fox: https://fundraise.michaeljfox.org/Climb-Mt- Kilimanjaro/laralangweiler.
http://www.reformer.com/stories/brattleboro-graduate-attempts-mt-kiliminjaro,513213
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