PEAK ACHIEVEMENT: After turning 50 in 2011, Framingham’s town counsel, Christopher Petrini , decided to pursue his dreams of mountaineering adventures “while my bucket list was full and I had good health and energy.”
That fall, he completed a 17-day trek through the Himalayas. Last year, he scaled Longs Peak in Colorado.
At 7 p.m. Monday at the Framingham Public Library’s main branch, Petrini will share stories and photographs from his latest expedition, a four-day climb for charity on California’s Mount Whitney in April. With an elevation of 14,505 feet, Mount Whitney has the highest summit in the contiguous United States.
Petrini, founding principal of Petrini & Associates P.C. in Framingham, was one of 50 hikers nationwide selected for the trek by Backpacker magazine through an essay contest. He was also the second highest donor, raising $9,000 of the group’s collective $275,000 gift to Big City Mountaineers, which helps urban youths develops life skills through outdoor wilderness programs.
Although he faced harsher weather and overall conditions in the Himalayas, Petrini said, his trek up Mount Whitney had its own challenges. While he and his hiking companion in Nepal hired a Sherpa guide to handle the majority of their gear, Petrini carried his own 50-pound pack for this spring’s California trek.
His equipment included crampons, ice axes, and ropes to navigate Whitney, with the trail including a stretch with a 60-degree pitch — the steepest he has ever faced, Petrini said. Temperatures ranged from the 20s overnight to the 70s during the day, with the sun’s reflection off the snow making sunscreen another necessity.
After technical rock climbing for the final 500 feet to reach the summit, he experienced “an unbelievable feeling of elation that made me thirsty to do more in the future,” Petrini said.
He is already making preliminary plans to conquer Mount Rainier in Washington next year, and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with his son, Shawn, when he is discharged from the Army in 2015.
Petrini hopes his presentation at the library inspires others to challenge themselves.
“In a small way, I hope my love for the outdoors gives others a window into a passion in their own lives,” he said. “If I can inspire someone else the same way I’ve been inspired, that would make me feel good.”
Scafati said the theme echoes Meadowbrook’s use of technology as a tool for students to learn and collaborate with one another. Over the last year, the school implemented a digital citizenship curriculum for its students in kindergarten through Grade 8 based on Common Sense Media guidelines for using the Internet ethically and safely, with topics including citing copyrighted material, what information is safe to share online, cyberbullying, and sexting.
“If we put this powerful equipment in kids’ hands, we owe it to them to guide them in using the technology responsibly,” he said. “The recognition from this contest was affirmation of everything we’ve done for the last year and a half to develop this curriculum: Talk about a great way to end the year.”
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE: Newton 17-year-old Miranda Gelch (inset) is performing in “The Sound of Music” through next Sunday at the North Shore Music Theatre, 62 Dunham Road in Beverly.
Gelch, who is a graduating senior at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, and 16-year-old StoweBrown of Beverly are the only two Teen Ensemble members in a cast of Broadway veterans. They are each playing the role of a novice nun.
Gelch, who has a number of regional theater credits, is making her North Shore Music Theatre debut. Brown previously appeared in the group’s production of “A Christmas Carol” and in the films “The Proposal,” starring Sandra Bullock, and “Here Comes the Boom,” with Kevin James.