Chaplain to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for child obesity program

St. Bartholomew parishioner Walter Glover of Columbus will journey to Africa this month to trek up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on June 12-18 to raise funds for the pediatric obesity program at St. Vincent Jennings Hospital in North Vernon. (Submitted photo)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Childhood obesity is a serious health problem in Indiana and throughout the United States.

St. Bartholomew parishioner Walter Glover of Columbus, the staff chaplain at St. Vincent Jennings Hospital in North Vernon, decided to do something about it.

Glover is going to great lengths—actually to a great height—to raise funds for the pediatric obesity program at St. Vincent Jennings Hospital.

Donations to his “Trek for Kids” up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, on June 12-18 will help pay for health services and educational efforts that address the acute medical needs of overweight children in Jennings County.

Glover, who is 61, is an experienced hiker, trekker and distance cyclist.

In 2007, he traveled to Nepal and trekked up to the base camp on Mount Everest, an altitude of 17,600 feet. The summit is more than 29,000 feet above sea level, and it is the world’s highest mountain.

This month, he plans to trek 19,340 feet up Kilimanjaro, the world’s highest free-standing mountain, to the summit at Uhuru Peak in seven days. His treacherous route will cross African savannahs, cloud forests, alpine deserts and glacial ice fields.

Trekking differs from mountain climbing because it does not involve rope ascents up vertical rock formations or require the use of oxygen to breathe in the thin atmosphere.

Glover started trekking two years ago after feeling called by God to hike part of the way up Mount Everest, which is known as “the roof of the world.”

He got as far as the base camp, which he describes as “the porch on the roof of the world,” a spiritual and emotional experience that he will never forget.

“To see the sun rising over the Himalayan peaks and the moon out there over other Himalayan peaks—not that I needed a confirming moment—but it’s the spirituality of the mountains that is just so vibrant,” he said, “and it brings me such enthusiasm, joy and peace. It was very, very moving for me—transcendental.”

Getting to the base camp on Mount Everest was “the physically most demanding thing I have ever done,” Glover said, and was the realization of his dream.

He experienced acute mountain sickness and the beginning of cerebral edema from the high altitude, extreme cold and thin atmosphere even though he only stayed at the base camp for 45 minutes.

“When I got home, I wasn’t well for eight weeks,” he said. “I had no energy for about 10 weeks.”

But the possibilities of danger and health problems haven’t deterred him from trekking up another huge mountain.

“On June 17, God willing, I will reach the summit of Kilimanjaro,” Glover said, where he will experience what he believes can only be described as “the awesomeness of God’s nature.”

(To support Walter Glover’s “Trek for Kids” up Mount Kilimanjaro this month, send tax-deductible donations to the St. Vincent Jennings Hospital Foundation in care of St. Vincent Jennings Hospital, 301 Henry St., North Vernon, IN 47265.) †