THANK YOU

As we near our departure date for our African adventure, we wanted to display a huge thank you to all of you have supported us and our cause: Reach for the Stars.  With your support we have been privileged with the task of raising our fundraising goal not once, but twice!  

We have always understood the importance of reaching even a few children, and originally set out to supply one classroom of children with telescopes.  But with your help we will be able to donate over 100 telescopes with the help of FoGE and UNAWE-Tanzania.  We can not thank you enough for your generosity and recognition for such a great cause.

Although some of you preferred to remain anonymous, please accept our deepest gratitude. And for those of you who we had the privilege of knowing and accepting your donations, please accept this additional recognition.  You play an important role in building a better and brighter future for ourselves, our families, and our planet.

Infinite thanks to:

Nicholas Eftimiades 

Steve Eftimiades

Paul Welsh

Kevin Miner

Janet and Jim Lawless

Sara Blackwell

Mark Beltran 

Joan Davis

Elizabeth Wheeler

Justin and Freeha Jung 

Laura and Tristian Tricarico

Megan Nasto

Stephen Nasto

Karen Hayes

John Eftimiades

Sal Alfano

Jessica Umaña

Maj Erik Eichin

Susan Bardenhagen

Joe Radich

Genevieve Makris

Donna Milewski

Caitlin Marsh

Pete Richie 

Your support is truly humbling! If we missed anyone and/or you donated anonymously and you'd like to show your support on our blog, just let us know. We'll be sure to thank you publicly- after all, it's the least we could do!

If you would like to make a donation, there's still plenty of time! We plan to continue to support this effort even after our climb and accept online donations at our Causes page as well as in person.

Thank you for being a part of the cause and our exciying journey! 

Social Media Frenzy!

Thanks to a suggestion from one of the best bloggers I know, the lady behind Rockandsole.net, Stephanie and I have opened up Twitter and Instagram accounts for our upcoming trip.  You can follow us on both sites at:  Summit_Style.  Since we are unsure how much cell service/power we will have as we ascend the mountain, we want to cover our bases and make sure even if we can't get a lengthy blog up in real-time, we will have updates and photos flowing through these social media sites.  Please follow along; we'd love to share our stories with you!

Follow us on Twitter!

Follow us on Instagram!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the Reach for the Stars travel blog!

Many of you find yourselves here in support of the "Reach for the Stars" charitable effort that we are pursuing in order to raise funding to donate telescopes to children in Africa.  Others of you are here because you want to follow us as we set out to climb Mt Kilimanjaro on August 3, 2013.  Others may have stumbled across this blog in hopes of some fun travel tips, tricks, and bloopers. Regardless of why you are viewing this page, you have come to the right place! 

As we, Federation of Galaxy Explorers (FoGE) volunteers, gear up for our journey in 1 week, we are frantically prepping our gear, our bodies, and most importantly, our cause.

Federation of Galaxy Explorers is a national nonprofit organization that promotes STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education for children. We have taken the initiative to develop a program that can not only reach children in the United States, but over seas as well.

Science education in Africa is often underfunded, understaffed, and overlooked.  When science does reach the classrooms, it is rare that Astronomy and the Space Sciences make priority.  In reality, astronomy is one of the oldest and arguably the most important sciences, as our ancestors have been relying on the stars for various necessities for as long as human records exist.  It also should not be overlooked that this is one of the most fascinating and awe-inspiring sciences that has sparked many children's interests in pursuing a career and future in science and engineering.

FoGE has made studying the cosmos possible for school children in the US by implementing Galilean Telescope kits into our school and camp programs.  The kits are easy to assemble, inexpensive, and give children (and adults) an opportunity to stargaze without fancy equipment.  FoGE has agreed to donate one telescope for every $20 raised through the Reach for the Stars program.  It is our hope to raise enough money to donate 100 telescopes to students in Tanzania and beyond.  It is our mantra to never underestimate the power of reaching out and inspiring even a few students; as children truly are our future.

In support of this campaign, Juli and Stephanie will be embarking on an 8 day climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro, located in Tanzania, Africa.  Our journey begins will be 6 days of 19,341 ft ascent, and a 2 day, victorious decent.  As we carry the FoGE flag to the top of the world's highest freestanding peak, we hope to inspire children across the world to embark on their own personal journey to "reach for the stars".
As previously mentioned, every $20 can donate one telescope to a child, but every penny counts in the pursuit of growing a stronger STEM generation.  If you'd like to be a part of this effort, please visit our donation site: Reach for the Stars Campaign.

You can follow Stephanie and I on this exciting adventure as we blog, video diary, and photograph every step of the way.  We plan to post as often as possible and will even have a live gps tracker so you an watch us climb the mountain, one step at a time.  Please keep checking back here and join us on our exciting expedition and worthy cause!

Happy Trails!
Juli and Stephanie 

Hello! And welcome to the Reach for the Stars travel blog.  If you'd like to donate to our cause, please visit: Reach for the Stars Cause Campaign.  We don't have any posts up just yet, but keep checking back because we'll have some very soon.  Thank you for your interest and for embarking on this journey with us!  - Juli and Stephanie