For the first time in Canada The Freedom Climb comes to Fernie, BC this August 6 to 12, 2016. The six-day symbolic climb to freedom will cover over 60 km and 9000 ft while bringing awareness and raising funds to help combat modern-day slavery, exploitation, oppression and trafficking. The event includes a welcome reception, four days of climbing and a day of prayer, worship with guest speakers. All accommodation, events and gatherings are being held at Lizard Creek Lodge at Fernie Alpine Resort.
One of the event organizers and Freedom Climber, Ramona Gliege, is very excited to be hosting this event in her hometown. “Fernie has been an amazing supporter of the Freedom Climb. The community supported me when I did my first international climb up Kilimanjaro in 2012, then again when five Fernie women went to Colorado to do the Seven Summits in 2014, and now, this summer, as seventeen Elk Valley climbers participate in the first Canadian Freedom Climb right here in Fernie! We thought what better place to have the first Canadian climb than Fernie, where the locals are compassionate and get behind others to support good causes and where beauty surrounds us? Where the mountains touch the sky and a river runs through the valley. This community has been amazing in supporting us through the planning and hosting sixty-three women hiking together in the mountains this summer for this great cause.”
The Freedom Climb is a project of Operation Mobilization (OM) and brings hope and transforms the lives of women and children who are exploited, enslaved and trafficked. The objective is to raise funds and awareness on theses issues to support OM projects around the world. Freedom Climb Canada has partnered with The Joy Smith Foundation, a Canadian organization that works to ensure that every Canadian man, woman and child is safe from manipulation, force, or abuse of power designed to lure them into the sex trade or forced labour. Mrs. Smith will be a speaker at the event.
The Freedom Climb is so much more than just climbing a mountain; it is a way to engage in the global battle against slavery and oppression and to strategically help the women and children it affects. Climbing these mountains is merely a symbolic gesture to demonstrate the struggle that women and children around the world go through every single day.
As an additional means to reach their personal goal of raising $3000 the Freedom Climbers from the Elk Valley are hosting a Multi Media Art Auction on July 8, 2016 from 7-9pm at the Castle on First at 461 1st Ave, in Fernie B.C.
