SEATTLE — A Seattle-based company that lost five sherpas in the devastating avalanche on Mt. Everest last spring is doing the only thing they say they can to help the survivors -- give them a better life.
The Nepalese government gave each surviving family $5,000. But Gary Harrington with Alpine Ascents says that won't last nearly long enough; what will, he says, is an education.
"They don't necessarily have the quality access to. You usually find in the villages and towns there's some sort of education but it's not like when you go to a bigger town where the schools are bigger and better,” explained Gary.
Gary says Alpine Ascents started a fund in 1999 to send the kids of the sherpas they've come to know and love to boarding school in the bigger town -- usually Kathmandu.
But this is the first time the climbing outfitter has sponsored kids whose fathers -- and typically sole wage-earners for the entire family -- have been killed on the mountain.
Five of the 16 men were working for Alpine Ascents.
Being a sherpa is one of the best-paying options for many of the Nepalese people, and some do the high-risk job only for the money.
An education, Alpine Ascents says, gives them other options. The company is paying for the daughter of one of the men killed back in April to study management in college.
Gary shows us -- on the company website -- kids who are now attending schools that cost about $2,500 a year.
They've gone from paying for 20 students to 37 since the avalanche.
“It was a way of giving something back to them,” he says, so that the kids can give to themselves.
The body of one of the 16 sherpas killed was never recovered. Although that man didn't work for Alpine Ascents, the company is paying for his son's education as well.
KIRO
