It's before 6 a.m. and Ellen Kraly is walking.

Unlike most Hamilton walkers, the path the Colgate geography professor and director of the Upstate Institute is vertical, not horizontal. A trail of footprints in the heavy dew mark her steep path up the former ski slope at Colgate.

She leans into the hill. Each boot she wears weighs three pounds. She carries a pair of ski poles and has a backpack filled with four gallon jugs of water strapped on.

This is no morning stroll.

Then again, Kraly is not just any walker.

Kraly is in the final days of training before joining her son Jimmy for a climb up Washington State's Mt. Rainier. The mother/son
team is part of a group climbing the 14,411-foot volcano to help raise money for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
in Seattle.

This will be the second such climb for Ellen and Jimmy. Several years ago, they climbed Mt. Baker and raised $10,000 for the
Hutchinson Center.

It's no coincidence that they are making the second ascent Aug. 13-15. Kraly has soft spots in her heart for the research center, Seattle and mountain climbing in general.

Kraly's love for mountains and mountain climbing began as a child. While she grew up in table-flat Ohio, Kraly said she her parents wanted their children to be exposed to and educated in the East. She went to college at Bucknell and her brother wound up at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.

But it was while working at a girls camp in the Adirondacks that Ellen discovered and was smitten by mountaineering. She has since climbed the 46 peaks of the Adirondacks and made an ascent of Mt. Kenya, Africa's second highest peak, on ice and snow, the kind of climb she will be making in August.

But it's not just her love of mountains that is driving Ellen and Jimmy toward the top of the mountain known historically by American Indians in the Pacific Northwest as Tahoma or Tacoma, "mother of waters". It's Ellen's history of having breast cancer that provides the strongest motivation.

In 1994, Ellen was preparing to lead a study group to Australia with another Colgate professor, Randy Fuller. Part of the preparation was a thorough health check. A chest x-ray showed a tiny spot. Because her impending trip, her doctors expedited exams and not one, but two biopsies.

"Everything kept coming back clean," she said.

Then, on the day she went to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse to have the stitches removed, her doctor told her the pathology exam detected cancer. Australia would have to wait. Surgery didn't.

Instead of Ellen going to Australia, the entire Kraly family made what amounted to a pilgrimage to Seattle after Ellen's successful surgery.

A family with a deep love of music, they visited the grave of guitar legend Jim Hendrix, a son of Seattle. It was in a Seattle music store that her younger son Geoff, then a pre-teen, bought his first bass guitar. They even stayed at the Paradise Lodge on Mt. Rainier.

It was a therapeutic trip that summer, she says.

It was a prophetic journey as well. Now, 14 summers later, Ellen and Jimmy are returning to the Pacific Northwest to join others climbing Mt.
Rainier on behalf of scientists working to spare other women from what Ellen faced.

While cancer does not dominate Ellen Kraly's daily routine, she remains aware of it.

"You don't want to pretend it's not part of your life," she says.

At times, it seems as though cancer is an intellectual challenge to be solved. Ellen tells of having spoken with her doctor about what verb
to use when talking about her cancer: its a "have" versus "had" question.

Today, this energetic professor, loving wife and proud mother -- and cancer survivor -- does not seem overly concerned about parsing out the language of the disease. For the next couple of weeks, her focus is on the final preparations for the trip to Seattle and the Cascade Range; wondering if she has climbed the hill at Colgate enough, lifted enough weights.

Once out west, she, Jimmy (who will celebrate his 29th birthday during the climb) and others in the climbing party will train on the mountain. They will learn to climb on a mountain covered in glaciers, to self-arrest, to stop themselves if they begin to slide on the ice and snow.

"It's come full circle," she says.

If all goes as planned, the team that Ellen and Jimmy are part of will stand atop Mt. Rainier and unfurl a string of Tibetan prayer flags. There willbe names on each. On one will be the name of Scott Kraly's Aunt Irene, who died from cancer not long ago.

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To the Editor:

We appreciate the support from people who attended the afternoon Open House July 5 in Cazenovia to commemorate the Fifth of July speech delivered by Frederick Douglass' in 1852.

Special thanks to Harris Lindenfeld, who hosted the event in his home; Maryann Winters, who worked on all the arrangements; Dr. Milton C. Sernett, who provided a program on Douglass; and Nuriyah Bone-Owens, who arranged a Cultural Heritage Excursion to the event for the Colgate University Higher Education Summer Institute.

This event, held in collaboration with the New York State Education Department, initiates another educational program on abolition for the public.

Dorothy Willsey, president
Cabinet of Freedom
National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, Peterboro

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HAMILTON — Colgate University football players will be lifting weights for charity July 25 at Sanford Field House.

The “Lift for Life” event will raise funds to fight rare diseases. Colgate is the first Football Championship Subdivision program to join Uplifting Athletes, Inc., which was founded by former Penn State player Scott Shirley after his father died of kidney cancer. Penn State, Ohio State and Maryland also have chapters.

The event, which begins at 6 p.m., will involve three dozen Raider student-athletes in lifting and skills competitions. Colgate fans will have a chance to meet the players during an autograph session following the competition, and there will be chances to win season tickets, parking passes, free rounds of golf at Seven Oaks Golf Course and other prizes. There will be free T-shirts for the first 100 fans.

“This program allows the Colgate players to raise awareness of people to rare diseases,” said Raider wide receiver Pat Simonds. “The Lift for Life event brings people out to meet the players they see on the field in person in order to raise money. Also, the players are looking for a way to put college football on the map in terms of a charity organization.”

“It's also a great opportunity for us as a team to have fun competing against each other and to show everyone how much we have worked this summer,” said linebacker Greg Hadley.

Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for children younger than 12. All proceeds will go to Uplifting Athletes.

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After more than three weeks on the road, the 28 black and Jewish high school students of this year's Cultural Leadership class stood in a line at the front of Temple Emanuel. Each prepared to recite a speech about a highlight of their trip across the South and East Coast, in which they met with individuals and organizations that hold some significance to black or Jewish culture. Though they joked and waved to their families in the audience, their nerves showed plainly on their faces: after all, this was their first chance to prove themselves as agents of social change.

Since Karen Kalish founded Cultural Leadership in St. Louis, she has set high standards and even higher expectations for participants. After six months of meetings and retreats, the group embarks on the trip, which the program organizes to refine their understanding and knowledge of social justice. Through the lens of the historic relationship between Jews and blacks, students learn the basics of public speaking, fundraising, mediation, and cooperation, which Kalish truly believes they will use to change the world.

"[Cultural Leadership] has evolved not only from St. Louis, but from everywhere, and our much bigger goals now are to continue learning about each other, to learn about anti-Semitism and white privilege and power. The much bigger goals have been to give them the tools to bring about change now themselves. We have lots of problems in this country, and we want to give the young people the skills to be the future leaders," Kalish said.

Though the core mission has remained the same, as Cultural Leadership produces new classes of alumni, its most direct legacy appears to lie in the personal choices of its graduates. Some, such as alum Clarissa Polk, a graduate of John Burroughs and a rising junior at Colgate University, continue to immerse themselves in other cultures.

"I'm a member of the Colgate Jewish Union. I'm not Jewish. I'm also member of the Hindu Student Association. I've always been fascinated by details and people, and Cultural Leadership was an opportunity that made those details of the past palpable. So I'm in those things just to learn, and I'm sure I would not have joined without Cultural Leadership," Polk said.

On the first day of the program, Kalish hands out a timeline of events in which blacks and Jews fought together for Civil Rights. Students learn to place themselves within a broader history, extending from a Jewish-led abolitionist movement in 1838 to black support for Israel on Capital Hill. Though many students enter the program with little knowledge of this relationship, most come to see it as a crucial support system between two similar cultures.

"I hope that we can strengthen it again. I know we've kind of gotten away from it, but I hope we don't lose it. I know it's easier for Jews to assimilate into American society because anti-Semitism has diminished, but we have such shared histories I think its' important not to lose it," MICDS junior Porché Poole said.

Cultural Leadership uses the group dynamic to enhance the trip. Leaders recognize the inevitability of conflict in a group of teenagers, together without a break for 24 days. They learn tension-relieving activities to smooth intra-group tensions, but also as practice in what Kalish sees as vital leadership skills.

"We're a lot closer now. We've seen a lot of different sides of each other. We were together for 24 days. We're better leaders now, better listeners. We're more patient and we work together better," John Burroughs junior Meredith Stoner said.

Many of these relationships also outlast alumni's transition into college. However, according to Kalish and her former students, Cultural Leadership's lessons on how to build relationships from scratch are the most valuable to former participants.

"We are closer than ever, probably closer than we were then. Most of us didn't know each other before junior year, but Cultural Leadership was a growing-up experience. Everyone has taken so much from Cultural Leadership. Rachel Winston — she went down to protest for the Jena 6. I know Blake Harris has formed the first multi-cultural frat at Mizzou. Scott Freidman, at Washington University, is in the Latin American Student Association," Polk said.

One of the most difficult moments on this year's trip came in Jena, La. Students first met with Bryant Purvis, a black student accused of battery and conspiracy in the controversial Jena 6 trials. They were told of a highly-segregated Jena, and students agreed the town needed to heal. Therefore, when they met with the reverend of a large white congregation in town, his refusal to acknowledge a problem struck Cardinal Ritter junior Jillian Lynum as unfortunate.

"He also has two children who attend the Jena High School where all of this has happened. And he said his children haven't had any problems. And I said, 'of course they haven't. They're Caucasian children."

Despite Cultural Leadership's rave endorsements by current participants and alumni, the program has had difficulty attracting Jewish students. This year's class had 20 black members, but only eight Jews.

"I can only say that within Cultural Leadership, people will say St. Louis is a very segregated town. You've got the Hill, North County, South County, West County, and it's hard to break out. A program like this, that so blatantly crosses lines, makes people nervous. People are nervous about getting involved or they don't hear about it. Current students and alums are encouraged to advertise, but it's hard to get a student to join a program when they're on a rhythm of school then Sabra or Ramah, then community service It's an interesting pattern that's hard to break," Simckes said.

Kalish plans to recruit more aggressively before students reach their junior year through Jewish schools and youth groups. She says that Jewish teenagers often have their summers planned years in advance, and they also have more opportunities than some of the black students in the area.

"We're a niche program — we're for the kids who really believe in tikkun olam. That's not everyone, not everyone is someone who really wants to bring about change, not everyone is an activist. Not everyone could be on the swimming team, not everyone could be in a play. This is a niche program," Kalish said.

According to Stoner, the number of Jewish students did not diminish the experience.

"Honestly, I did not even really notice there was an imbalance because everyone was there to learn the same things," Stoner said.

Ultimately, Cultural Leadership is not so much about shaping activists to fight racism and anti-Semitism, as it is about equipping students with the skills necessary to launch their own, personal campaigns for social justice. Kalish's high expectations for her students seem to be contagious, as evidenced by their high goals for themselves.

"Throughout the whole Cultural Leadership trip, every time I thought of an idea I wrote it down. So I wrote a to-do list, and there are ten or fifteen things on that list. This was my resting week, but starting Monday, I'm getting started. An example would be, in Selma, Ala., there was a monument that said 'I had a dream,' and it had a list of people's names on it. The thing is, the dream is still going. Instead of I 'had' a dream it should be I 'have' a dream. I want to get the monument fixed as soon as possible. The other sad thing about this monument is that it's facing the public housing complex, so when children look at it they see that there was once a dream. That's one of the things I want to get fixed," Lynum said.

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Reverend Martha “Marti” Swords-Horrell first fell in love with theology in her freshman year attending Colgate University. A required course in philosophy and religion forced her to rethink her beliefs as an adult and ultimately led her to question, “What do you believe?”

“I had some wonderful professors,” she recalled. “They weren't proselytizing at all. They were Christians but they didn't ever come from that point of view. They came from here's the tradition. Here's the Bible. Here are the great thinkers of the faith. And they just helped me wrestle with that. It was very life changing.”

Fast forward to 2008 and Swords-Horrell is celebrating her 25th year of ordination. Asked why she chose a life in ministry, she replied, “I guess the bottom line is that I love God and I love people.” On June 13, the United Methodist Church in Fayetteville officially welcomed Swords-Horrell as their new pastor. She came from serving four years at Trinity United Methodist Church in Clay, and follows Rev. Nancyreh Kugler who recently retired from UMC.

Swords-Horrell chose one of her favorite scriptures for her first service, which comes from Isaiah 55 and talks about God's will.

“Basically what [Isaiah] is saying is the word of God always accomplishes what God purposes for it,” she said. “I'm just the instrument of it and that's what all of us are. I think that as long as I keep that in front of me, that we'll go forward in the direction that God wants us to go.”

Her beloved scripture has also evolved into a mantra Swords-Horrell tries to live by daily.

“Every morning I just get up and say, ‘You're in charge, God – let me be a channel of your peace,'” she said. “That's really the way I try to live. I'm certainly extremely fallible and fall short of that many days but it's wonderful to know that God always forgives us and every morning is a new beginning.”

Grace, she said, is the center of their theology as United Methodists.

For those who don't know or don't believe in God? They still experience his grace, she said.
“I don't think [atheists] are any less loved by God,” she said. “All of us, even faith-filled people, go through times where God feels far away for various reasons. God even feels absent.”

As for those who hurt, feel lost or confused?

“There's hope,” she said, adding that God especially seeks out those who need him most. “It may be through a religious organization; it may be through somebody who never met God. God can work through all kinds of people and through all kinds of situations but I would just say, ‘Don't give up.”

Swords-Horrell finds her biggest joy in ministry work is being invited into the intimacy of people's lives – a privilege she takes very seriously and knows it takes a process of trust.

“Trust has to be earned and I hope to be worthy of that,” she said. “I think it's a huge privilege for people to welcome you into their life and it's not something I take lightly.”

Additionally, she enjoys being part of a bigger plan, along with her congregation and the community, to help better the lives of others.

“How can we give back? It's that verse in the New Testament about to those whom much is given, much will be required,” she said. “And I think that's especially true here in Fayetteville and other places in Onondaga County. We have a very high level of education.
We are turning out world leaders.

“How can we get these people – our youth, young people, people who are already working – to continually look beyond themselves? That's what God is calling us to do and that's very exciting.”

Swords-Horrell and her husband Dana, also a United Methodist pastor in Jordan and Camillus, have a son Nathan who will be a junior in the fall at Cornell University, and a daughter Madeline who just graduated from high school. She is taking a gap year to do missionary work in Nicaragua. She hopes to attend SU upon her return.

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Colgate's dinosaur egg, donated by former Colgate trustee Col. Austen B. Colgate, and research done by Colgate Professor Connie Soja and students is the cover story in American Paleontolgoist's Summer 2008 edition.

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Charlie Liebschutz, a 2002 Pittsford Sutherland High School graduate, has been named the director of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in Iowa.

Liebschutz was previously a field director in South Carolina for McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee who is running for president against the presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

McCain won this year's South Carolina Republican primary but lost in the Iowa Republican caucus.

In an e-mail statement, Liebschutz, 24, said his duties as Iowa campaign director include managing day-to-day operations and continuing voter outreach efforts.

Liebschutz said he's working to get McCain elected because of the senator's track record of not letting partisan politics stop him from making decisions in Congress to benefit the entire country.

Liebschutz also praised McCain for being one who is not being afraid to tackle tough issues.

"Our organization in this state continues to grow," said Dave Roederer, McCain's Iowa chairman, in a news release. "Charlie and I will be working closely to expand our grassroots effort."

Liebschutz said he become politically active while a student at Colgate University, where he graduated in 2006 with a history degree.His parents, John and Paula Liebschutz, live in Pittsford.

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