A New Place To Call Home
When Brad moved his family from Kentucky to Vermont in the early 2000s, he envisioned the Green Mountain State as a place where his children could grow up surrounded by natural beauty – a place that might foster a sense of independence, adventure, and a deep connection to the world around them.
Fast forward two decades, and Brad’s hopes had materialized in ways he never could have imagined.
'You're doing what now?'
One day, he received a call from his daughter, who was halfway across the globe in Tanzania, serving local communities. “You're not gonna hear from me for five or six days,” she said, her voice cutting in and out with poor cell service. The reason? She was about to embark on a journey to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. For any parent, such news would be both thrilling and nerve-wracking. “As a father, I was beside myself,” Brad admitted. The thought of his daughter tackling one of the world’s highest peaks was daunting, but he knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“I thought, you know, she may only have one shot at this, and if anyone can do this, she can.”
Sure enough, she did it. Over the course of four grueling days, Brad’s daughter ascended 10,000 feet to reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was an experience she would cherish forever—But how do you commemorate such an incredible achievement? (You might see where this is going…)
Celebrating an Adventure
Not long after, Brad happened to catch a WCAX spotlight on Treeline Terrains. Intrigued by the idea of creating a custom memento of his daughter’s accomplishment, Brad reached out to us with one of our favorite questions: “Can you guys really carve a map of anywhere-anywhere?”
The answer was a resounding yes.
Four weeks later, his daughter received a surprise package in the mail—a meticulously crafted, to-scale map of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the surrounding plains. The words “Yeah, I climbed it!” were engraved on the side. The reaction was immediate. “It was met with much excitement,” and, according to Brad, plenty of heart emojis. “She was just really proud of the piece, which was awesome, and it makes for a great conversation starter,” Brad shared.
- "Yeah, I Climbed it!" -
Keeping Home Close
But Brad wasn’t done spreading the love. He also decided to surprise his younger daughter, who now lives in South Carolina, with a custom map of Lake Champlain—a reminder of her old stomping grounds back in Vermont. Her response was equally enthusiastic. “That's the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” she told her dad. High praise, indeed!
- VT Map -
When asked what makes Treeline Terrains’ maps so special, Brad summed it up perfectly:
“It’s one thing to have a map, and it’s another to actually be able to communicate with it with your senses—to touch it… And the fact that they’re here in Vermont is the cherry on top.”
Mt. Kilimanjaro photo credit - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Antony_Trivet