Pictured: Team Cubellis
More than 4,000 climbers including 200 firefighters and nearly 2,000 touched by lung disease, raced up Chicago’s John Hancock Center this past Sunday in a fundraiser for Respiratory Health Association. This year’s Hustle Up the Hancock is expected to raise $1.5 million for lung disease research and programs.
Christopher Schmidt of Chicago won the men’s division, scaling 94 floors in 9 minutes and 38 seconds. Veteran climber Cindy Moll-Harris of Indianapolis took back the women’s title with a record-breaking time of 10 minutes and 52 seconds.
The second annual media challenge was as competitive as last year. ABC7’s John Garcia won with a time of 15:25 narrowly beating out CBS2’s Kate McCall and NBC5’s Mike Adamle who finished in 15:40 and 16:04 respectively.
The average runner scaled John Hancock Center in 26 minutes.
For many climbers, reaching the top was a victory in itself. Half of the participants indicated that they or loved ones have been touched by lung disease.
Climber Matt Dinerstein’s family was touched by lung cancer not once, but twice. His aunt and mother both had smoking related lung cancer which caused Matt to become passionate about tobacco cessation programs and lung cancer prevention. Matt climbed as a Lung Health Champion, raising over $1200 for RHAMC.
Joel Africk, CEO of Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, lauded the fundraising efforts of the participants. “More than a million people in the Chicago area suffer from lung disease. Funds raised from this climb will go a long way toward helping us find cures for lung cancer, COPD and other lung diseases.”
CLICK HERE FOR 2008 CLIMB RESULTS
