Support our youth...

[J Eddington]

Here is an amazing young woman, trying to make an impact on the world. She is a friend of Bruce Dorn who some of you may know. (If you haven't taken a class from him you are missing out on something FANTASTIC) Any way here is what Bruce is requesting. For you to go and watch her video. So if you have minute or two watch it a couple of times!!! Every time the video is viewed it casts one vote.
Here is the request that Bruce sent out. AND yes he told me I could share it with you....

A couple of years ago, while guiding a safari in Tanzania, I had a very unique experience. I had committed to guide two back-to-back fifteen day safaris with the requisite sixteen guests. I was nearing the end of my second stint, cruising the riparian forests on the banks of the Mara river looking for Wildebeest and crocodile interactions, when I had a very unique experience with “bush mail”, something I’ll not soon forget.

Bush mail can travel by many routes but in this case it arrived by air. Air Bush Mail. A bit of a technological contradiction, really, but why split hairs? it is, after all, Africa where strange occurrences are commonplace.

Anyway, after the bush plane pilot had somehow determined that I was indeed ensconced in this particular Land Rover, out the window flew a well thrown rock, carefully wrapped with a hand-scrawled note on a bit of crumpled and bedraggled paper. It landed nearby...

We retrieved the missive and it held a request the likes of which I would never have imagined. A Boston couple was writing to ask if I, Bwana Brucie, would consider lengthening my stay to accompany their 18 year old daughter on a private two-week safari. It seems she won a grant to study photography and had mysteriously chosen to study with me, if I had the time. Just her, me and my favorite tracker, the always stoic Kileo.

My response to the pilot was, as you might imagine, an emphatic pantomime of “Yes!”

A few days later Erica Wineland-Thomson touched down, unloaded her rigid-frame back-pack, and off we sailed into the tawny sea of long grass that is the Serengeti.

I was beta testing the then-new Canon 200mm f2 and 800mm f5.6 for Canon so we shot everything, from Maasai healers to Lilac-Breasted Rollers. Photography lessons were interspersed with lengthy conversations, of course, and I quickly learned that Erika was a well-seasoned traveler long before I met her. If you ever saw the IMAX film of Kilimanjaro, look for the twelve-year-old redhead - that’s young Erica making summit.

Erica and I became fast friends and have corresponded regularly ever since. She attends a private Liberal Arts college now and majors in Geology when she’s not trekking in India or Bhutan or some such spot. The girl is a serious environmentalist through-and-through. With the help of her dad, she converted a Geo Metro to electric power when she was sixteen. Quite a girl, this one.

Erica is my pal and I hope that one day she decides to seek the reins of responsible environmental policy on this planet. Solid, thoughtful young people are a gift to the future.

Anyway, at last I arrive at the point of this posting. At this very moment, Erica is in Switzerland undergoing tests and trials to see if she will qualify to join an international group of young explorers who will make an attempt to climb Everest. The ongoing training of the Young Explorers may tracked through photos, text, and video online at Pangaea Expeditions 2008-2012 - Official Website. Look for the Himalayan Selection Camp section...

Only a handful of applicants will make the cut and my friend Erica really, really wants this. Each climbing team has produced a short video as a part of the overall competition (there’s that stupid video thing again) and the video that generates the most click-through views will win and progress further in the competition.

If you admire kids with big ambitions, please follow this link and cast a vote for my fiery little redheaded pal, Erica:

http://pangaea-yep.com/m/videos/view...ion-Video-BEST

Vote early and often!

Bruce