The CragBaby

One of the last blog comments on the Please Help a Climber in Need post inquired about a medical update on Tacos.  I emailed two of Tacos’s friends who would be best in the know, but unfortunately they have heard very little (most likely due to Tacos’s inability to check emails without help).

The only update is Tacos has flown back to Japan (her flight was on July 7) and was taken to a Tokyo hospital.  There is a chance she might be transferred to a hospital in Osaka soon.  When I spoke with her (about a week and a half ago) her medical condition was the same with feeling in her toes but the inability to use her hands.  She was real cheerful and thanked everyone for the support.

As mentioned in the previous post, her insurance has kicked in now that she is in Japan, but the cost of her flight home was not covered.  If interested in chipping in, you can do so below with all proceeds going directly to her paypal account.

Thanks for your support.  It is great to see the climbing community pulling together for one of its fellow climbers.

I met Tacos Satoko in Rocktown as she was one of the few climbers camping at the Sawmill Campground. We climbed together on two days and she spent a handful of evenings hanging out around the camp fire.

Tacos, a very kind, quiet girl, was planning on traveling for a bit through the US prior to heading back up to Canada, where she had been working. But this past week, en route to Alberta, she was in a horrible car accident, resulting in a broken neck. She was flown to Casper Medical Center in Wyoming where she underwent surgery for the broken neck, but currently has little movement from the shoulders down. She has regained some feeling in her toes and fingers and her breathing has become easier over the last few days. She has also gotten help to sit in a chair for a few minutes per day and is remaining positive that she will recover and be able to rock climb again in the future.

Her home is in Japan and though she has health insurance, it does not cover the cost to fly her home. In her current situation she will need help covering the cost of the 3 first class flights (necessary due to the 2 caregivers who must accompany her) plus the wages and expenses for these caregivers. Also, her insurance does not cover physiotherapy, which if not started soon can impact her chance of full recovery.

The exact cost is unknown at this time, but it is estimated that she will need approximately $10,000. Please consider helping out a fellow climber and making a donation to the cause.

To donate, click on the “ChipIn” button above.  All donations are directly deposited to her paypal account.

It would also be great if any of you readers could help spread the word. If you are a blogger and want to add this widget to your blog, there is a copy button on the widget or feel free to email me at wasatchgirl at gmail.com for the appropriate code.

As many of your readers know, I am quite passionate about volunteering and being involved with small events that can potentially make a big impact.  And today I stumbled upon a great idea organized by a fellow climber.

Laura Fitton, known online as Pistachio, is a social media consultant, mother of 2 plus a climber.  She focuses her business efforts on using micro strategies to achieve macro results and over the holidays created the Well Wishes campaign, an effort to raise $25,000 for Charity Water in order to build an entire water project for a school or hospital in Africa through the simple asking of her online audience to contribute $2 each.  You can read more about what she is doing here.  Or if interested in donating, she is gathering donations mostly through TipJoy (for us Twitterers) or through credit card / paypal on her Charity Water page.  If she raises $12,500 by january 21st (her birthday), she will receive a $5,000 match (equivalent to another village).

I strive to be a tech geek (though I am an amateur one at best) plus I am a climber.  The two worlds RARELY collide, but when they do it is so fun!   One place where they are currently merging is Twitter.

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that I have found to be of utter value within the last year.  Most of the value I receive is through tech talk and following start-up chatter (I actually wrote up a post concerning this on the WasatchGirl blog).  However, it is real fun to see people tweet (meaning to post something up on Twitter) about going climbing or recent climbing news.

A friend of mine and fellow blogger is The Climber Girl.  She is a lawyer based in Oregon who climbs, blogs and tweets.  She wrote up a fab blog the other day called Twitter 101 for Us Outdoorsy Types and then provided these lists of us bloggers and twitterers in the subsequent post.  I was amazed at the list of us geeky climbers… Sweet!  Nice post, girl! =)

If you are on Twitter or want to come check it out, I would love to connect.  I am (as usual), The WasatchGirl.

I rarely post the same information, let alone the same post, on both the Wasatch Girl and the Crag Baby. I like to keep the sites distinctly different, but make an exception on certain occasions. I consider this to be one of those occasions. Here is the last post from the Wasatch Girl .

As many of you local readers and twitter-ers already know, one of the fellow technologist in the area, Phil Burns , learned this past week that his 22-month-old daughter, Serenity, has leukemia. Incredibly heart breaking news, but with the upside that she has immediately started chemotherapy and should be able to survive. His previous business partner, Jesse Stay , has created the Chip In Widget where donations are directly deposited into the Burns’ paypal account. The goal has been increased to raise $1,000 by June 23 and Jeff Barr has committed to donate an extra 15% to the final amount. I have integrated the Chip In Widget on both of my blogs on the right hand column.

I have gotten to know Phil through a handful of his startups and by following his online presence. He is a good guy willing to take the continual risk of being an entrepreneur in order to provide innovation to many. I would urge you to help him out in this time of need.