Students climb Kilimanjaro

Augustus Spelman, 17, of Forest Hills and Otis Burnstein, 17, of Kew Gardens climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in an effort to raise money for the Kew-Forest Scholarship Fund for future students.
“It was very rewarding,” said Spelman, who recently completed his studies at Kew-Forest School where he was on scholarship since he first started at the school in the third grade. His motive to climb the mountain was to support the school and get the word out about the scholarship fun.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Burnstein about climbing the mountain. “I was pretty confident that all of us were going to be able to do it.”
Burnstein, who is a rising senior at the Kew-Forest School but not on scholarship, took part in this task so he could help people who need the scholarship money to attend the school.
Currently, the duo has raised $5,430.69 towards their overall fundraising goal of $5,895 - a number they decided on because the mountain is 5,895 meters tall, and they wanted to raise $1 for each meter climbed.
“Hopefully, we will be able to make our goal with the donations since we have some time left,” said Spelman.
The pair named their endeavor “Ad Summum,” which is Kew-Forest School’s Latin motto, which translates “to the highest,” because they felt it was appropriate for their challenge.
Both students came away talking positively about their trip.
Spelman agreed and said if he gets the opportunity again, he would like to climb the other six summits at the mountain which earned literary renown in 1936 when Ernest Hemingway wrote the classic short story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro.