CLIMBER BLOG: Joanna Cichocki

Why I joined SOTSK

We got a call in the Fall of 2008 from Brooke to pitch us SOTSK. Lewis asked me if I wanted to be a part of it and I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard. The opportunity to climb Kilimanjaro is on a lot of people’s bucket lists and it’s not everyday you get offered a chance to do something like this. We were in the middle of Emmy season, though, so I hardly had any free time to work on the proposal. I went in on a weekend and worked for about 6 hours to pull something together. Lewis said it was the best plan I’d ever written, telling me he could tell how much I cared about it. Brooke came in and we pitched her the plan. They were meeting with other agencies then came back about a week later and told us we were in.

I was thrilled but also knew I was in for a serious personal challenge. I was a smoker and had been for 10 years. I also had never climbed before. At first, we were supposed to go in March 2009 so I quit a couple months before that. When the trip moved,  I started smoking again then quit in July 2009 for the September dates. Then it moved again to this January, so I quit for real November 1st and stuck with it.

My take away is the sense of accomplishment from making it to the summit. When I first heard about SOTSK over a year ago, I knew I wanted to be part of it but I had no idea if I’d be able to make it. The entire SOTSK group synched up incredibly well and our Group 3 rocked…it was an absolutely incredible experience.

- Joanna Cichocki