Published Sunday, May 28, 2006
IN HIS FOOTSTEPS

Cathy Robinson Pickett's recent shopping list for her teenage son included an item difficult to find any time in Florida and especially in May: long johns. It took a trip to an Orlando ski shop to find the thermals. Garrett Robinson, 14, will need them. Some time in June, the Lakeland ninth-grader hopes to stand atop Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro, where temperatures can plummet well below zero.

In addition to the long johns, Garrett will rely on some thick outerwear inherited from his late stepfather, Steve Pickett, who wore them to climb the mountain in 2004. That's appropriate, because Garrett will be making the climb in Pickett's honor and for the same cause that motivated the late activist: HIV awareness and prevention.

Garrett and his mother are traveling to Tanzania along with eight other members of Friends-Together, the nonprofit advocacy organization Cathy Robinson Pickett and her late husband founded in 2000. Four of them will take part in the planned five-day trek up the world's largest autonomous mountain, an endeavor dubbed Climbing for a Cause II and the Steven Pickett Memorial Climb.

"It's going to be hard, because I'm going to be thinking (about Steve) the whole time," Garrett said, "but that's going to make me want to do it more."

His late stepfather's presence won't only be spiritual for Garrett; he plans to carry a small packet of Pickett's ashes and scatter them on the mountain. And Garrett will literally walk in Pickett's footsteps, wearing his late stepfather's size-12 hiking boots on the journey.

Garrett stayed home two years ago when Pickett was the only member of Friends-Together to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro. Cathy Robinson Pickett says she contracted HIV after being raped at age 18 during a robbery at the Tallahassee convenience store where she worked. The diagnosis in 1991 led to the end of her first marriage. Garrett and his sister, Lyndsy, are HIV-free, as was Steve Pickett, who died in a car accident last year.

Cathy's health won't allow her to attempt the climb, and instead she will serve as part of the support crew, along with John Balenski, a volunteer with Friends-Together. The other participants are from outside Polk County.

The Africa trip is a fundraiser for Friends-Together, with each participant setting a goal of getting $5,000 in pledges and paying his or her own travel expenses. The group also will deliver medical and school supplies to African families affected by HIV and AIDS.

Garrett said his unusual summer plans have received mixed reactions from classmates at Southwest Middle School, where he recently finished eighth grade.

"Some of them say that sounds fun," he said. "But some of them say, `You're not going to be with your friends all summer.' "

Garrett, a typical teen given to skateboarding and wearing a Tshirt that declares "I'M WITH STUPID" in large yellow letters, seemed in danger of missing the trip when a case of viral meningitis in January put him in the hospital for a week. But he recovered in time to complete Ride for a Cause, a 500-mile bicycle ride to raise money for AIDS education and prevention. Garrett, who came up 56 miles short the year before, made the five-day ride from Tallahassee to Naples in March.

"I didn't think I was going to be ready in time for the bike ride," Garrett said. "I think if I can do that, I can make it (up the mountain)."

"He's a good athlete and very, very physically fit . . . but what you can't train for is altitude," Cathy Robinson Pickett said. "It's the highest free-standing mountain in the world, and we're from Florida, and no one knows if you're going to get altitude sickness till you get up there and get on the mountain. . . . That's the one wild card there's just no training for."

Garrett, a fast-growing teen with a mop of brown hair, has encountered some modest mountain climbs in Georgia, West Virginia and Canada. He's counting on his general fitness to get him to Mount Kilimanjaro's 19,340 feet summit, and he has been working with a trainer on leg strengthening.

Pickett said her son's expedition has poignancy, because the famed snows of Mount Kilimanjaro, which prompted the title of an Ernest Hemingway story, are receding and predicted to vanish entirely within a decade or so.

Though the trip has a serious purpose, Pickett said the group plans to devote some time for tourism, including a photo safari in Serengeti National Park, home to lions, elephants and rhinoceros. After leaving Africa, Pickett and her son plan to spend a week in London, where they will meet up with Garrett's 15-year-old sister, Lyndsy.

Garrett expects he'll have left a small part of his late stepfather on the African mountain at that point. But when the family gathers in London, Steve Pickett will no doubt be with them in thought, as well as attire.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or at 863-802-7518.