Bear project brings furry friends to Bellevue kids
Published 3:23 pm Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Each year at holiday time, Phil and Susan Ershler purchase roughly 100 stuffed bears for kids at local nonprofit organizations. On Dec. 11 they brought 40 of the furry little friends to Hidden Village site in east Bellevue and handed them out to K-5 kids.
Hidden Village is one of three Bellevue Boys & Girls Clubs’ public housing sites — a partnership with King County Housing Authority. The kids attending after-school programs there are from low-income families.
The couple has another joint activity: they are the first to have climbed together the highest mountain on each continent. Known as the “Seven Summits, the endeavor came on May 16, 2002 when together they reached the summit of Mount Everest. They’ve written a book on their adventure, Together on Top of the World: A True Story of Love and Courage, published by Warner Books.
Susan Ershler is the fourth American woman to climb the Seven Summits and the 12th American woman to climb Mount Everest.
Not a professional mountain climber, she trained by climbing the 35 stories in her high-rise office building on her lunch hour for a year — with a 40-pound pack on her back.
Phil Ershler is a professional mountain guide.
Susan Ershler (left center, poses with the children and their bears.
– Courtesy photo
