DCU Rock Climbing Club are holding a fundraising event at their climbing wall for the Ger McDonnell Memorial Access Scholarship.

Ger McDonnell, as you may already know, was the first Irishman to reach the summit of K-2 and tragically died on his descent coming to the aid of his fellow climbers. He was a DCU graduate, earning a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic Engineering in 1993 and a main driving force in the setting up of our Climbing Club.

His friends in the faculty of Engineering decided to set up a memorial access scholarship in memory of Ger and set about trying to raise the €50,000 DCU requires to set up an endowed perpetual Access Scholarship. €40,000 has already been raised and the Rock Climbing Club was approached by the Engineering Department and asked if we would participate in the fundraising. We decided to hold a fundraising climbing event on the 21st of March at 9am at our wall in DCU. There will be prizes on the day including an Xbox 360, donated by BT Ireland, and food in Matt Weldon’s pub (across the road) afterwards.

All funds raised will go to the DCU Educational Trust, a registered charity and fundraising arm of DCU, who are setting up the Ger McDonnell Memorial Access Scholarship to benefit deserving students participating in the DCU Access Scholarship Programme. This Memorial Access Scholarship would be a wonderful way to remember Ger’s passion and determination to succeed – a passion and determination that will inspire future students for generations to come.

The DCU Educational trust is a registered charity – CHY 8960