Clubhouse

Idol chatter reaches new heights

Fun facts about climbing Mount Everest:

First ascent: Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, Nepal, in 1953.

Elia Saikaly proudly displays his Kiwanis Idol banner on his way to the summit of Mount Everest.

First solo ascent: Reinhold Messner, Italy, in 1980.

First ascent by a woman: Junko Tabei, Japan, in 1975.

First ascent by a man waving a Kiwanis banner: Elia Saikaly, Ontario, in 2007.

An Ottawa filmmaker, Saikaly began his ascent of Mount Everest—elevation 29,028 feet—this past March, reaching the summit in late May. He carried with him a banner from the Kanata, Ottawa, Kiwanis club’s annual Kiwanis Idol singing contest (see “Competition More than Idol Gossip,” February 2007), to wave at the summit.

“Elia produced a music video with our 2005 Kiwanis Idol that is still on our Web site,” notes Kiwanian Eldon J. Fox. “When he was looking for funding for his climb, we gave him money out of our Kiwanis Idol fund. He is documenting his climb so when he comes back, he can share his story with schoolchildren, hoping to inspire them and show them they can climb the mountain of life and make it to the top.”

Eldon notes that Saikaly also will take part in a joint fundraiser for Kiwanis and Child Haven International, an organization that is building a school in Nepal in honor of Sean Egan, an Ottawa professor who died from a heart attack on the mountain and who was Saikaly’s inspiration for the climb.