New Heights, a World Record, and a Milestone-

Updates and an anniversary

Southern California climber Brennen Thompson at Mount Kilimanjaro. Photo: ValleyTough.com

Every now and then, stories require updates

Remember the young man who along with his friend, climbed ten mountains in California to raise money for two hometown charities?

Brennen Thompson did just that with the successful climb up Half Dome at Yosemite in June.

But that’s not all

In early July, Brennan and two others took their climbing gear and community spirit to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

The ten California climbs were more than just build-ups to the big climb in Africa.

Each step embraced an effort to make an impact on Brennan’s hometown as well as his adopted new home in southern California.

“By the grace of God himself, we did it,” Brennan said in a video recorded after the Kilimanjaro climb. “I’m forever indebted for the place that makes us who we are.”

Brennen Thompson kept a video diary of each of his climbs, including one at the top of Half Dome in June. Photo: ValleyTough.com

We did two columns on Brennan: one in 2020 at the start of the effort, and one in June when he came to Yosemite.

What’s next for this young man?

Not even he knows.

But if this effort is any indication, we can be assured whatever he attempts will have impact, and make a difference.

You can see Brennan’s video from that Kilimanjaro climb on the website ValleyTough.com

A two-seater all-electric airplane that is part of a four plane fleet being used to demonstrate the feasibility of all-electric aircraft propulsion. The planes are based at Fresno Chandler Executive Airport. Photo: NewVisionAviation.org

We received a lot of attention from the column on the all-electric airplanes now at the Fresno Chandler Executive Airport.

The planes are part of a demonstration project to help develop policy on using all-electric aircraft regularly.

The non-profit New Vision Aviation imagines a future with all-electric planes traveling throughout California.

Smaller municipal airports, such as the one in the City of Merced, might someday be equipped with charging stations.

New Aviation President Joseph Oldham did a test flight in mid-July with the all-electric plane.

He flew round trip from Fresno to Sacramento, with recharging stops in Madera, Merced, Modesto, and Lodi.

As the portable chargers used to regenerate the plane’s power cells were energized by the sun, the flight actually set a record for the longest solar-powered flight in history.

That’s a record that New Vision hopes will be short-lived as more aviators get into the all-electric aircraft space.

The first column I wrote for MercedCountyEvents.com in 2011

That takes us to this brief column from ten years ago about the benefits of volunteerism.

It may not seem like much, and it probably did not make much of an impact when it was first posted in this space in February 2011.

But that column, and the more than two-hundred that have followed since 2011 represent my small contribution to MercedCountyEvents.com.
Webmaster Brad Haven has stayed on top of this effort to provide a forum for non-profits to list their events, for churches to post their hours, for service clubs to share their successes, and for local businesses to get the word out about their offerings.

It’s a tenth anniversary, plus another six months, for the Our Community Story column.

I look forward to many more.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His book Can-Do Californians is available at BarnesAndNoble.com and at Lulu.com