Paul Castello Climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro!

Happy New Year Everyone,

First of all I would like to thank all of you who are supporting Paulie on his African adventure. Most importantly by doing so you are helping A Chance for Bliss continue to do the great work they do!

I thought I would start out by telling you a little bit about Paulie (for those of you who do not know him). He is 56 years old, recently retired from Santa Cruz County and loves adventure. We have been together for 24 years, married almost 20. He loves to ride his motorcycle, he ran marathons, has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes, and loves to climb mountains.

Paulie climbed Mt Whitney in 2002. It is located in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. Rising 14,497' it has the distinction of being the highest peak in the contiguous United States. On that climb he raised money for the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation, (http://www.aarbf.org) for Champ Camp which is a week long, residential, summer camp experience for young burn survivors. As a burn survivor himself, raising money for Champ Camp gave Paulie added motivation to reach the summit.

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro is another opportunity for Paulie to raise awareness for another great cause, A Chance for Bliss.

When we met Deanna, Woody and all of their companions we knew that what they are doing is very important for both animals and people! We have raised 8 dogs and while that has been difficult at times and definitely heart breaking at other times, the joy that Paulie and I have experienced living with and caring for our animal companions has been and is a blessing.


Paulie starts the climb on January 13th. We are hoping that I will be able to receive phone calls and text messages from him as he ascends the mountain.

Each day I will make an entry here to let folks know how he is doing.

I already have butterflies in my stomach as he is leaving in 6 days. He has been training and preparing for the climb since July, 2009. He has also been keeping a journal. I will share some of his thoughts and feelings over the next few days about his training and the making of this trek. Until then take care - Vikki