Paws for a Cause: Canine Climbers Raise Money for Special Operations Families

November 2012

MITRE's Marcie and Eric Zaharee were searching for a way to raise funds and awareness for a very special cause. Learn how the Zaharees—joined by their two eager dogs—are climbing New Hampshire's mountains to raise funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

Perhaps she is thinking of the time when she, her husband, and her two dogs, Princess Dakota and Jessie the Handsome Dog, ran into a bear descending Mt. Moosilauke. Or the time the dogs stumbled into a nest of ground hornets on Mt. Waumbek. Or when they all raced to scale Cannon Mountain before a storm bearing the threat of 90-mph winds reached the peak. But Marcie Zaharee, an information systems engineer in G034, does not hesitate when she calls her and her husband Eric's goal of hiking the forty-eight 4,000-foot peaks in New Hampshire's White Mountains this summer and fall, "a heck of lot harder than I thought it was going to be."

Marcie and Eric, however, know that the hardships they're tackling on their adventure pale in comparison to those faced by the men to whom the couple is dedicating their effort. Marcie and Eric are making the climbs and blogging about them in an effort to raise $4,000 for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation provides scholarships, counseling, and financial assistance to the families of Special Operations personnel killed or severely wounded in the line of duty.

For Eric, a retired Special Forces operative who served in the Army for 27 years and now maintains MITRE's secure work areas as a member of corporate special security, the cause is a very personal one. "I served with twenty-five different special force operatives who were either killed or injured severely during the course of their duties. One was a fellow radio operator who died in a training accident. His child received a scholarship from the Special Operations Warrior Foundation."

The couple had been brainstorming about how they might support the Special Operations Warrior Foundation when Marcie came across a copy of Following Atticus. The book describes author Tom Ryan's attempt to raise money for cancer research by joining his miniature schnauzer Atticus M. Finch in climbing New Hampshire's 4,000-foot peaks twice in one winter.

Marcie and Eric decided it was the perfect fundraising idea to steal. ("Maybe not 'steal'," Marcie corrects. "Knowledge reuse at its finest, I prefer to say.") They set a goal to hike all peaks during 2012. They were no strangers to mountain hiking, having previously ascended the highest peaks in Maine and Vermont. And Eric was training for a climb of Alaska's Mt. McKinley.

But it was the idea of having their dogs join them in the endeavor that excited them most about the idea. Their black lab Dakota and golden retriever Jessie were more than eager to sign on. "We just say the word 'Go!' and they're ready to jump in the truck and head for the peak."

To share their adventures and raise awareness for their cause, Marcie maintains a blog about their climbs. But she herself is not the narrator of their tales. The blog, titled "The Adventures of Princess Dakota and the Handsome Dog," is told in Dakota's voice, one full of canine enthusiasm for the great outdoors (if not tinged with some sibling annoyance at Jessie's antics). Here Dakota describes their run-in with the bear:

Mom and Dad have been making us wear bells on our collars. While we think they are stupid (meaning the bells), they actually scared a bear away while we were descending the mountain. About a mile from the finish line a bear heard us coming down the path and ran off into the woods. Seeing a bear helps you finish the last mile much more quickly! Before we saw the bear my mom was really having a hard time finishing the last couple of miles of our hike. Once she saw the bear it was like she had a second wind...she really picked up speed. Imagine that!

In the blog, Dakota shares anecdotes about the climbs, information about the peaks ascended, and inspirational messages about the sacrifices made by our country's soldiers. The entries also include quotes from military biographies on Marcie or Eric's reading stand. And all entries are dedicated to Special Operations soldiers who have fallen.

As Marcie and Eric cross each peak off their list and inch ever nearer to their fundraising target, they remind themselves and their blog readers that their endeavor is not simply about lofty goals or worthy causes. "It's about taking care of people putting themselves in harm's way," says Eric. "It's about those people working to keep us safe back here. It's about our responsibility to take care of those who take care of us." As of November 2012, Marcie, Eric, Princess Dakota and the Handsome Dog have completed 45 of 48 peaks.

—by Christopher Lockheardt

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