Copyright © 2004 Asbury Park Press.
Published Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004
Section B
By Rodney Point-Du-Jour
Keport Bureau
(With information added by Ride for Life from other sources)
(Pictures courtesy Daniel Wekselblatt)

Before they reached the summit of Mount Washington in northern New Hampshire, Monmouth County residents Daniel Wekselblatt and Michael Lange trekked over patches of ice and snow, endured frigid temperatures and felt the slight nudge of 20 mph winds as they carried 50 pounds of climbing gear on their backs.

However, scaling a mountain is nothing in comparison to watching friends and relatives battle a life-threatening disease.

On January, 21, Wekselblatt, 44 of Ocean Township and Lange, 45 of Wall reached the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington for the Climb for a Cure fund, a local charity that has raised more than $6000 for cancer and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) research. The two Monmouth County residents raised the money by charging $25 to sign a white flag they carried to the summit, they said. The duo reached the summit, which is the Northeast’s highest peak, after five hours.

“This came out of a frustration to find a way to help people I know who have suffered from cancer,” Wekselblatt said.

The flag, white with a red baseball and a pink ribbon in the center, will be sold on eBay, an on-line auction site, they said.

Wekselblatt, a member of the stage and lighting crew for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” was able to include donations from some television stars in exchange for their name scribbled on the flag. Signatures on the flag include Max Weinberg, the bandleader for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”; Ann Curry, an anchor for NBC’s “Today”, and Jimmy Fallon of “Saturday Night Live,” Wekselblatt said.

Wekselblatt, an experienced mountain climber, said he hopes to draw an additional $2000 in donations for the flag through the on-line auction.

Wekselblatt and Lange had plenty of motivation for the climb. Wekselblatt lost his mother, Virginia to breast cancer, while Lange has friends and close relatives who had bouts with cancer.

“Everyone knows someone who has been affected by this disease,” Lange said.

“Three years ago one of our longtime lighting heads, who had just married, found out along with his wife that she has ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Peter and Anne Ehrhardt were just beginning their lives together. She now fights for every moment climbing a mountain much higher than I will ever climb,” Wekselblatt said.

Wekselblatt said he carried the memories of his mother, a former soprano for the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center in New York, with him during the climb.

“I felt an unbelievable strength while climbing the mountain,” Wekselblatt said. “It was so emotionally uplifting.”

All proceeds for the Climb for a Cure will go toward the ALS Association of Greater New York and Breast Cancer Research Foundation of New York, Wekselblatt said.

Donations for the Climb for a Cure fund can be mailed to NBC Credit Union, Climb for a Cure, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY, 10112. For more information, call 732-517-0736.