By Michael Butler

Tallassee High School junior Ian Pendergrass hopes to make a difference in raising awareness and dollars for childhood illnesses.

The goal is $25,000. The quest is to climb Mount Rainier in Washington, the highest peak in the contiguous U.S. at 14,410 feet.

“I worked as a lifeguard with Children’s Harbor,” Pendergrass said. “They work very closely with Children’s of Alabama. I’ve seen first-hand how they help the children. That’s why I decided to fundraise. I chose to climb a mountain because that combines my interests with giving money to charity.”

Pendergrass hopes to make the climb this summer.

“100 percent, it will happen no matter what. The reason I chose Mount Rainier is it’s the biggest mountain in the lower 48. It’s big enough that all the companies that sponsor me will get a lot of positive PR from it.

“Coming from Alabama, there are not any mountains of that caliber. I grew up in Boy Scouts. That kind of led me to having an obsession with the outdoors. I’m going to have to train. I don’t think it’s going to be too easy.”

Pendergrass has done some hiking and climbing including rock climbing. He will also add some safety training when the time comes to travel west.

“Usually, it’s about three days. Climbing up takes a little bit longer – about two days up and one day down.”

Some of Pendergrass’ fitness training has come from his active lifestyle including workouts as a member of the Tallassee High School wrestling team. Another part of the regimen… pushups.

“To get my first thousand followers on social media, I was doing one push per every follower. If I had 700 followers, I was doing 700 pushups that day. Now, I’m over 1,000.”

Pendergrass calls his fundraiser, “Mountains 4 Miracles.”

“The money goes directly to Children’s for Alabama,” he said. “I wanted to do it that way, so it is transparent.”

For more information or to make a donation visit, https://www.mountains4miracles.com.