On the surface it may not appear that the 61-year old lawyer, Bill Peithmann and the Mahomet Area Youth Club have much in common. But in July Peithmann took MAYC’s cause to Mount Kilimanjaro.
“MAYC is creating role models, choices and opportunities,” Peithmann said. “MAYC is saying I can do better. We can do better than this. What I was yesterday is okay, but what I’m going to be tomorrow is better.”
Peithmann’s decision to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with his 18-year old stepson Logan McCann came last year when the two were in Peru. Peithmann attempted to climb the 19,341 volcano top ten years ago was unsuccessful when he fell ill to altitude sickness.
With quadruple bypass surgery and a total knee replacement since then, Peithmann knew his second attempt would be more trying than the first. But as a member of the MAYC Board, Peithmann said he has learned about pushing limits from fellow board members, including, but not limited to, Gary and Trudy Matthews, Margaret White, Matt Difanis and Mary Weaver.
“We like to think we had a dramatic event for us, and we’d like to use that to sustain our message that Mahomet Area Youth Club is an opportunity to make good choices and achieve great results,” he said.
Gary Matthews asked Peithmann to join the MAYC team when the organization switched from being an on-site, select location for children with financial needs to being an organization that provides after school educational opportunities for students throughout the Mahomet-Seymour School District.
“You can walk down the halls of (Mahomet-Seymour) high school and almost get run over by the ambition some of those kids have,” Peithmann said. “But there is another Mahomet of people who don’t have all those advantages. And what I think MAYC is doing is creating opportunities for kids that might not otherwise have them. These opportunities can get them off the ground.”
Peithmann said the board has seen the how students benefit from the seamless opportunity to extend the learning day through MAYC’s after school program BLAST.
“MAYC has evolved from being a select refuge for people with personal and domestic problems that defied description, to a community-wide opportunity for pushing limits,” he continued.
But coming up with the funding to support opportunities through B.L.A.S.T. has been a challenge for the organization. With operational considerations, the need to hire additional staff and the $130,000 annual commitment to the Mahomet-Seymour School District to fund BLAST, MAYC is searching for ways to increase funds to support the program.
Hoping to draw regional and international attention to the Mahomet Area Youth Club, Peithmann and McCann placed the MAYC flag at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in July. The conditions Peithmann and McCann were exposed to on their climb, including freezing water and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, reminded them of the conditions of many children in Mahomet also face.
“There are kids who wake up, and they don’t know if the water will be turned on, if the electricity will be on or if there will be enough food throughout the day,” Peithmann said.
McCann, who has traveled a few places around the world, was taken by the poverty is Tanzania.
“Going there and seeing all these people who don’t have the opportunities that I have, it didn’t really push my boundaries, but now I have a broader perspective of life,” he said.
Peithmann hired the same 20 porters he used when he first attempted to climb Kilimanjaro 20 years ago. Although the porters do not have the same opportunities Americans do, Peithmann said the porters are “some of the best athletes and bravest men he’s ever seen.”
McCann said he learned that “you don’t have to climb a mountain to go out of your comfort zone. You could just wake up everyday and try a little bit harder.”
Both McCann and Peithmann hope that their message, MAYC’s message will give inspiration to Mahomet’s growing community and attention to a growing organization that Peithmann calls the backbone of Mahomet.
