In honor of Veterans Day this month, we are proud to spotlight our partner, One Summit, and extend our gratitude to all those who have served our country.
One Summit’s mission is to build resilience and facilitate growth in pediatric cancer patients and their siblings through experiential learning, mentorship, storytelling, and community engagement with U.S. Navy SEALs. Experiential learning takes place in the form of indoor rock climbing, at Climb for Courage. Through this adventure, we induce challenges that empower children to achieve growth through conquering adversity. The long-lasting relationship they form with their Navy SEAL mentor inspires the hope and resilience each little warrior needs to continue in their fight.
With your help, Love Your Melon has provided $85,000 in funding since 2016, which included support of One Summit’s expansion to Virginia Beach!
In honor of Veterans Day this month, we are proud to spotlight our partner, One Summit, and extend our gratitude to all those who have served our country.
One Summit’s mission is to build resilience and facilitate growth in pediatric cancer patients and their siblings through experiential learning, mentorship, storytelling, and community engagement with U.S. Navy SEALs. Experiential learning takes place in the form of indoor rock climbing, at Climb for Courage. Through this adventure, we induce challenges that empower children to achieve growth through conquering adversity. The long-lasting relationship they form with their Navy SEAL mentor inspires the hope and resilience each little warrior needs to continue in their fight.
With your help, Love Your Melon has provided $85,000 in funding since 2016, which included support of One Summit’s expansion to Virginia Beach!
Meet Adam La Reau, founder of One Summit! Adam has never let an obstacle stop his forward progress. After graduating from high school, he entered the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy with a plan to go straight to the water — at the Navy SEAL’s Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training in Coronado, California. No one from the Academy had ever done that.
During Adam's first deployment, he received word that his mother had passed away from breast cancer after she courageously battled for two years. He responded to the experience and loss the only way he knew; by seeking out opportunities to help others in their fight.
His charity work exposed him to yet another group of warriors enduring a battle like nothing he’d seen before — childhood cancer. Adam remarked: “Instead of spending time on the ball field, in backyards playing with friends, or even going to school, they were spending their time in treatment, getting scans, waiting for results and talking with doctors.” Adam started thinking about how the resilience he saw in the SEAL community could be applied in his desire to battle the disease that took his mom and impacts thousands of young children every year.
He attacked this question in 2013, when he transitioned out of the SEAL teams, Adam pursued a Master’s Degree in Public Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School, where he put together a proposal and entered Harvard’s President’s Cup Challenge.
Adam built his entry around a metaphor that captured both the scope of a SEAL mission and a kid’s battle with cancer — climbing mountains. As Adam recalls, “it is filled with falls, missteps, redirecting routes, and rocks crumbling from under your hands and feet.” This is not unlike the psychological stress of having cancer. Young patients “haven’t climbed any mountains before. There is a gap in skill and experience to make the climb and they can’t do it alone.” With this in mind, he drew a sketch with kids and SEALs facing such a climb together. And the name hit him: One Summit.
In 2014, after eight months of conceiving the idea of One Summit, Adam held the organization's first Climb for Courage event and the rest is history!
Since its inception One Summit has hosted 23 Climb for Courage programs, working with 220 US Navy SEAL mentors, helping 450 patients & siblings build resilience in the face of adversity.
Today, One Summit continues its vision that “No Family Fights Pediatric Cancer Alone”. To learn more about One Summit and their mission click here.
