CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — A Cumberland County woman is taking fundraising to new heights.
Julie McKelvey hopes to make a difference while scaling the world's seven tallest summits.
Her next goal? 29,032 feet high, Mount Everest.
"It's the number all the way up, it's the top of the world," McKelvey told FOX43 News. "You hear the stories but I never ever imagined that I would actually be going there to climb it."
Scaling the world's seven summits is something only around 70 other women have accomplished. McKelvey not only hopes to do it, but also wants to raise money for an honorable cause, buying hearing aids for children and adults who can't afford them.
"Raising the money also helps push me up that mountain. I'm suffering, but the people who can't hear and want to hear [but] can't afford hearing aids are suffering even more than I am," said McKelvey.
A Miracle-Ear franchise owner with more than 30 officers across Pennsylvania, McKelvey knows the struggles people with hearing loss face and how expensive treatment options can be.
She says the reaction she and her employees get from people who benefit is well worth the struggle.
"When they do their first fitting and [you] see the joy, tears and overwhelming emotional response from these people and the gratitude, then you want to just keep doing more and more," said McKelvey.
That's exactly how the Summit for Sound Fundraiser was born. McKelvey raises money through her climbs, with 100% of the profits going toward the Miracle-Ear Foundation.
"[I] never expected the level of support from people and the outpouring of love and support to help the foundation. To me, that tells me I'm supposed to be doing [this]," she said.
Everest will be the sixth of seven summits that McKelvey completes. She's expected to start on March 30 and expects the journey to take about two months.
"I have trained so hard for this and I will show up there as ready as I can be," she told FOX43. "It's really up to the mountain and the situation as to whether I get to the top."
For more information on the Miracle-Ear Foundation, click here. To follow along with McKelvey's journey and donate to her cause, click here.