By Jason Millman
Thursday, August 23, 2007

Nearly two-thirds of climbers on Mount Kilimanjaro ultimately fail in their quest to reach the top, but one 13-year-old Concord boy getting ready to scale the highest peak in Africa is already a success in the eyes of family and friends.

Nicolai Calabria, born with only one leg, will set out for the top of Kilimanjaro on Tuesday with his father on a special mission. The Peabody Middle School seventh-grader is trying to raise at least $25,000 for The Free Wheelchair Mission, an Irvine, Calif.-based charity that will send 550 wheelchairs to Tanzania, where Kilimanjaro is located and about 2 million people out of 20 million have a disability.

“I cannot be prouder that he has set this as a goal for himself, and I’m proud he turned this into something that will benefit others,” said Nicolai’s father, Carl Calabria.

The big-hearted teeen got the inspiration to make the climb from “Emmanuel’s Gift,” a documentary about an African athlete with a deformed leg who raised money for disabled people in his country.

Nicolai, who plays soccer and tennis and does gymnastics, has already raised close to $10,000.

The six-day trip up Kilimanjaro does not require any special hiking skills, which is why so many disabled people try to make the climb, according to Carl Calabria. But as father and son hike with a host of guides and reporters, they will battle extreme weather and the effects of high altitude.

To prepare, the Calabrias have been practicing on local mountains. “I’ve told him and told myself we are there to climb; to put one foot in front of the other and to do that over and over again,” the elder Calabria said.