One Summit’s mission is to build resilience and facilitate growth in pediatric cancer patients and their siblings through mentorship, experiential learning, storytelling, and community engagement with U.S. Navy SEALs.
Experiential learning takes place in indoor rock-climbing activities at Climb for Courage and Climb Higher. At Climb for Courage (CFC), patients and siblings (ages 5-18) are matched individually with a U.S. Navy SEAL and are guided through a series of rock-climbing challenges derived from a curriculum on Posttraumatic Growth based on the research by Dr. Richard Tedeschi. We represent a volunteer mentor population of over 200 SEALs (active duty, retired, medically tired, separated, and those transitioning into civilian life) with the opportunity to fulfill their dutiful desire to continue to serve. Becoming a Navy SEAL requires candidates to overcome near-insurmountable obstacles, the characteristics, and values the SEALs embody make them the ideal mentors to help children develop critical skills that help guide them through their fight against cancer. The CFC experience focuses on teamwork, goal setting, overcoming hardship, and reflection, which helps facilitate a long-term mentorship relationship between the Navy SEAL and the child. Specifically, CFC induces individual challenges in a safe and controlled environment that encourages the kids to learn how to achieve growth through adversity while gaining new abilities, having fun, and forming new relationships.