New Yorker crawling for charity
Published: May 31, 2005
Negotiating the mean streets of Manhattan can be tough enough on foot.
Just imagine crawling.
But Brooklyn cab driver L. G. Khambache Sherpa hopes New Yorkers will join him in doing just that - crawling on hands and knees with him during his ongoing 15-mile, six-day “Crawl-a-thon” from Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood to Ground Zero.
Never mind that within seconds of trying out the moves, a street-crawling neophyte might find his or her wrists aching, shoulders burning and knees feeling like they’ve been smacked with a ball-peen hammer. Not to mention the strange stares from passersby.
Sherpa says the pain is all worth it if he fulfills his goal: raising cash for tsunami victims in Asia and Sept. 11 emergency workers at Ground Zero - as well as to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first scaling of Mount Everest.
“Hopefully, some people will come join this mission and crawl with me - not only physically, but spiritually also,” said Sherpa, 41, as he took a break from day two of the crawl while sitting on the sidewalk at 179th St. and Broadway Monday.
Sherpa plans to crawl 1 to 3 miles each day. He’s traveling on the west side of Broadway to Battery Park, and then will head along Trinity Place to Ground Zero for a 2 p.m. EDT ceremony Saturday. And while Washington Heights’ hills may not be as steep as those in Nepal, they are just as challenging, Sherpa said.
Monday, Sherpa dodged kids on bikes, iPod-wearing pedestrians and shoppers with grocery carts. But he won a grudging respect from jaded New Yorkers. “I thought he was weird,” said Alfredo Garcia, 63, of Inwood. “But he’s doing it for a good cause. I like the idea.”
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