Ryan Foss raised money for an education center in a remote Maasai village in Kenya by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. He was inspired to help after seeing the magnitude of poverty in Cameroon and learning of the Maasai people's passion for education as a way to lift themselves out of poverty. The education center aims to provide schooling as well as training in midwifery and sustainable farming. Meanwhile, in Nashville, a financial group helped a family recovering from floods by providing clothing, toys and other essential goods after they lost their home and possessions in the 2010 floods.

1. 12 creativeliving · spring 2011
good works By Amy Korpi
volunteer efforts that change our world
top: Linda Whitwam/Getty Images; bottom: Courtesy of Ryan Foss
P
eople need help the world over,
whether it’s to climb out of
endemic poverty or to recover
in the long aftermath of a natural
disaster. The people profiled in this
column have found ways to reach
out to others, whether they are vil-
lagers in rural Africa or neighbors in
Nashville, Tennessee.
Helpinghands—abroadandathome
Climbing Out of
Poverty
Some 15,000 hikers climb Mount
Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, East Africa, each
year, reports Smithsonian magazine. Many, of
course, do so because “it’s there,” as the old
adage goes. Others, like Ryan Foss, do it to
raise awareness for a cause.
Foss used the strenuous climb of Africa’s
highest peak, the tallest freestanding moun-
tain in the world, to gain visibility for his true
goal—helping the people of rural Kenya fight
poverty.
Calling his campaign Ryan’s Mount
Kilimanjaro Climb for Education, this former
salesperson raised money for Give Us Wings, a
Minneapolis-St. Paul-based organization that
joins people in Kenya and Uganda in eco-
nomic, medical, and educational development
projects, aiming to empower them to be self–
sufficient and develop the skills needed for
long-term success.
Before the climb, Foss spent several days
laying the foundation of an education center
for a Maasai village in the Rift Valley of
Kenya. He and his fellow volunteers also spent
a day with local families, experiencing the rare
opportunity to look at life through their eyes.
CL: What inspired you to champion this
cause?
Foss: Ultimately, I can trace the start of this
journey back to 2004, when I took a spur-of-
the-moment trip to Cameroon to aid a friend in
need. I had been to Africa before, but I had
never been so close to the magnitude of ­poverty
I saw there. It was depressingly eye-opening. I
was in a sales career at the time and, as soon as
I landed in Minneapolis at the end of the trip, I
began hearing from clients expressing their
frustrations about prices changing 10 cents
while I was gone and how I had better start
doing something about it. I decided that day, in
the airport, that I needed to start doing things
that made a difference in the world.
Fast-forward to 2009, when I had the
chance to visit a Maasai village in Kenya. I
was amazed at the passion that the inhabitants
of this very remote region had for education.
Here, where there is little help, it is a rough life
in harsh conditions; the road to the school is
barely drivable for visitors. Yet the people rec-
ognize that learning is their vehicle out of pov-
erty. And seeing their effort to gain it, I
couldn’t imagine not supporting that.
CL: There are many ways to offer aid;
why is a school so important?
Foss: First, it is their choice. Give Us Wings
began working with the Maasai people about
six years ago, providing a small amount of food
to the women of the village. Yet only two short
months later, they proclaimed, “We want to be
able to read, write, do math.” With all of their
great needs—lack of water, hunger, poor shelter,
and sickness—their first priority was to read.
In addition, education is a path to much
more than the learning itself. People who can
“Iwasamazedat
thepassionthat
theinhabitants
oFthisvery
remoteregion
hadfor
education.”
Above:
Mount Kilimanjaro
Below:
Ryan Foss (right)
with a Maasai friend.

2. creativeliving · spring 2011 13
good works
Katherine Bomboy/ABC via Getty Images
Amy Korpi is managing
editor of Creative Living.
destruction, thanks to their “adoption” by
this Northwestern Mutual office.
Imagine being completely uprooted, losing
everything except a few items you’re able to
salvage. First, you find a hotel room to stay in
with your four children. Then, when relatives
are able to share space, they only have so
much, and you must be separated from your
kids. When you finally get into an apartment
to try to find some semblance of stability
again, it means you are now paying rent as
well as the mortgage on your nearly destroyed
home, which you are trying to restore.
That was the Churchwells’ experience—and
that is what led Pruett financial representa-
tives, staff, and family members to pitch in to
buy, wrap, and deliver linens, clothing, shoes,
and toys to speed the family’s recovery and
help brighten the 2010 holidays. “It was a
privilege to do what we could to help our
neighbors, who continue to face a long road of
repairs and replacement as they recover from
the flood,” says Managing Partner Chuck
Pruett.
The Pruett Financial Group was connected
with the Churchwell family through the
Salvation Army, which it already had a long
history of supporting. The office’s “Building
Community” Family Volunteer Program
engages financial representatives, staff, and
family members—including children—in vol-
unteer opportunities that help meet basic
needs in its community.
read are more likely to find work, better able
to look after their health and the health of
their children, more likely to ensure their chil-
dren go to school, and better able to hold their
governments accountable.
But even more directly, this project is esca-
lating into plans for midwife training and test
farming at the education center. In effect, we
can help these honorable people preserve their
way of life, which is fast disappearing.
CL: What are your dreams?
Foss: In the short term, we need funding. I like
to say that a donation is one small way to give
back for the good fortune of being born in a
country with so many opportunities. In the
longer term—say, five years from now—it is
my hope that the school will not only have full
classes of traditional learners, but that there
will be greenhouses and test farms around the
school to teach area people how to grow crops
that not only feed their families, but provide a
vehicle to earn income. The village might also
become a model for the Maasai people in pre-
serving their culture. And, ideally, fewer
babies will die during childbirth as a result of
midwife training at the school. Ultimately, I
dream for the people in the village to utilize it
in their own way to have a better opportunity
to live healthier lives.
For more information about Foss’s work, go to
giveuswings.org.
Neighbor to
Neighbor
Just as many of the Northwestern Mutual
clients who are profiled in “Good Works”
endeavor to change the world through their
volunteer efforts, many of the company’s
financial representatives and offices strive to
make a difference, as well.
Just one example can be found in The Pruett
Financial Group of Nashville, Tennessee.
Nearly a year after floods devastated Middle
Tennessee, many families there are still strug-
gling to regain their homes and financial secu-
rity. But the Churchwells, a family of six who
lost their home and belongings in the flood,
are closer to where they were before the
Call for
Nominations
Do you engage in a
volunteer activity you
would like to see in
Creative Living?
“Good Works”
highlights the philan­
thropic and unpaid
efforts of North­
western Mutual cli­
ents like Ryan Foss,
whose Financial
Representative is
Darrell Peterson of
Mendota Heights,
Minnesota—as well as
other members of the
Northwestern Mutual
family, like The
Pruett Financial
Group of Nashville,
Tennessee.
To suggest a candi­
date for this column,
please contact your
financial representa­
tive or Creative Living
editor Catherine
O’Neill Grace at
cgrace@tmgcustom
media.com.
After the 2010 floods in Nashville, roofs were raised and hope
was restored as neighbors pitched in to help each other recover.