Rock climber launches nonprofit to give at-risk youth access to ‘uplifting’ sport

Resting between routes, Ted Pappageorge sat back on the rock climbing gym’s crash pads stained with white chalk, overwhelmed by his surroundings.

An aerialist spun in the air, suspended by silk fabric. Beneath her, inside a cave of indoor routes, a group of climbers flowed through yoga poses, guided by an instructor. On the walls all around him, climbers reached for plastic holds, balancing their feet on small footholds like a dance.

Pappageorge thought: “Wow, this is amazing.”

“I was just surrounded by all this wellness. In that moment, I thought about how six, seven years ago, I would be sitting drunk in a bar, and now I’m here,” Pappageorge recalled on a recent November afternoon inside a downtown Las Vegas coffee shop. “If someone had shown me this when I was 12, my life would have been drastically different.”

As he stood inside Nevada Climbing Center that day six months ago, “a lightbulb went off,” he said.

Since then, Pappageorge has made great strides to launch Higher Ground Climbing and Wellness, a nonprofit organization that aims to introduce underprivileged youth to rock climbing — potentially the first nonprofit of its kind in Las Vegas, according to a review of 501c3 tax filings in Nevada.

He’s formed a three-member nonprofit board, raised nearly $8,000 and hosted two events in partnership with the Metropolitan Police Department’s DREAM youth mentoring program.

“There is a significant number of at-risk youth in Vegas that would benefit from the sense of community and uplifting energy that climbing offers,” Pappageorge said. “Higher Ground will provide access to a sport that these youth might not have for a lot of reasons, like finances or transportation.”

‘It took over my life’

One of the police officers who helped create DREAM — an acronym for discover, redirect, empower, advocate and mentor — now sits on the board of Higher Ground.

“Being at the events and seeing the joy on the kids’ faces, how much they enjoyed rock climbing, it was definitely something that I wanted to be a part of,” Metro officer Donte’ Batiste told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We understand that for a lot of the inner-city kids we interact with, rock climbing is something that they’d never think of doing.”

Such was the case for Pappageorge, now 35, who grew up in Las Vegas and began drinking and partying in his early teens.

“I partook in a lot of destructive behavior when I was younger,” he recalled. “It definitely hindered my achievements.”

It’s a phase of his life that would stretch into his early 30s.

“Until I found something that I loved more than partying,” he said. “Some people aren’t so lucky.”

A date brought him to a climbing gym — Nevada Climbing Center — for the first time in his life a little over a year ago.

The experience was metamorphic. He returned to the gym the following day.

“I just kept climbing,” he said, “and it took over my life.”

Pappageorge hopes that his work through Higher Ground will have the same effect on at-risk youth in the valley.

“I think he definitely has a great idea,” Batiste said. “Any help that I can be in terms of elevating it to the next level, I definitely want to do that.”

The rock climber and the officer met in July through a mutual friend, after a graduation ceremony for the first cohort of DREAM participants. Pappageorge was brimming with ideas. Batiste was impressed.

“The biggest driving factor was Ted’s passion to help out the youth and that connection we have in regards to making sure we can help those who are in need who don’t have an outlet,” he said. “That way they don’t go down a slippery slope.”

What’s next?

Though still in its infancy, to date, Higher Ground has introduced 23 kids and teens to the sport at Nevada Climbing Center in partnership with Metro’s DREAM program. Pappageorge hopes to later expand to other climbing gyms in the valley.

In between events, he and his board members have been busy with fundraising and paperwork. In September, they raised $5,000 within nine hours through an ongoing GoFundMe campaign — money that has gone toward licensing and incorporation fees, climbing equipment and gym time for the youth, and marketing materials, according to Pappageorge.

With those funds, Pappageorge also was able to file for a Nevada state business license ahead of Christmas. Next, he said, he will tackle the application for nonprofit federal tax status.

In the meantime, Higher Ground and DREAM are set to introduce a third class of at-risk youth to rock climbing early next year.

But ultimately, when more funds are raised, Pappageorge said he plans to create a full indoor training curriculum that would prepare Higher Ground participants for outdoor climbing.

“In the climbing world,” Pappageorge said, “it’s a big deal when you first make the transition from the gym to the crag as we call it. So the real mission is for us to get the kids out on real rock so they can have that mind-blowing moment with nature.”

Pappageorge said it’s important to him that Higher Ground give the kids and teens a goal to work toward together.

“The wonderful thing about climbing is that everyone’s on the same team,” he said, “and it’s a really beautiful thing.”

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.