Ryan E. Bishop Outdoor Leadership Fund Awards scholarship Grant to Kismet Rock Foundation
 
North Conway – The Ryan E. Bishop Outdoor Leadership Fund recently awarded $7,940 to Kismet Rock Foundation’s (Kismet) summer scholarship program.  Thanks to the generosity of the Ryan E. Bishop Outdoor Leadership Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Kismet will be able to offer four four-year climbing scholarships to deserving students from New Hampshire beginning in the summer of 2012. 
 
Chris and Jeannie Bishop, and their son Christopher, started the Ryan E. Bishop Outdoor Leadership Fund to honor the memory of their son and brother, Ryan E. Bishop. Twenty-one-year-old Ryan died tragically during a canoeing trip in southern Utah in late April while saving a friend’s life. During the summer and fall of 2011, his family created two funds to ensure that Ryan’s passion for life and his love of the great outdoors will live on: The Ryan E. Bishop Outdoor Leadership Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the Westminster College Scholarship Fund in Salt Lake City.  The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation offered a generous 10 percent matching grant to the contributions made in memory of Ryan during the summer.
 
“Kismet Rock Foundation is honored to be the first Ryan E. Bishop Outdoor Leadership Fund scholarship recipient,” says Brian Post, Kismet Board Chairperson. “This scholarship will be instrumental in allowing several Kismet students to experience the outdoors through the unique perspective that climbing offers. We send our sincerest gratitude to the Ryan E. Bishop Outdoor Leadership Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for helping Kismet to transform the lives of underserved youth through an education in technical climbing.”

Great Circle Foundation Awards Grant to Kismet Rock Foundation

North Conway - The Great Circle Foundation has awarded a $15,000 grant to Kismet Rock Foundation to offset the costs of its summer program in 2012. Kismet Rock Foundation enhances the physical, intellectual and emotional development of children who lack access to opportunities such as the one Kismet offers by providing access to the immense value of a comprehensive and multi-dimensional education in technical climbing.  Kismet Rock Foundation was selected because of its focus on providing a direct educational service to youth.

“The generosity of the Great Circle Foundation will continue to allow Kismet students to have the opportunity to benefit from the technical and life skills that a climbing education can offer.  We are delighted that the Great Circle Foundation has chosen to make Kismet Rock Foundation a philanthropic priority.  Our warmest thanks to Great Circle for enabling children from low income families to be a part of the Kismet family,” says Brian Post, Kismet Rock Foundation Board Chairperson.

Kismet Rock Foundation emerged out of a desire of the director, Mike Jewell, to offer the same climbing instruction to economically disadvantaged children as he had given to families throughout his guiding career.  In 1999, Mike asked a childhood friend, Stanley West, to find four children in southern New Jersey and bring them to New Hampshire for one week of technical climbing instruction. This initial project was accomplished with little money and with much effort on the part of some very kind and generous people.  The project received media attention and Mike started Kismet the next year.

Kismet was born in 2000, with the support of many friends and organizations.  To learn more about Kismet, please visit www.kismetrockfoundation.org.