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Charlie Wittmack to moderate AViD
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| Des Moines Library |
The 2007 AViD (Authors Visiting in Des Moines) Author Series promises to bring another exciting array of outstanding authors to Des Moines! Now in its seventh year, the Des Moines Public Library’s series continues to feature some of the nation’s finest authors, thanks to the Des Moines Public Library Foundation, with support from Humanities Iowa, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Deb and Doug West, Wells Fargo, Pioneer Hi-bred, and the Davis Law Firm.
The AViD Author Series has expanded from its initial 2001 offering of three authors in three days to this year’s lineup of seven authors that stretches from April through June (and perhaps beyond). The Des Moines series has caught the eye of several New York publishers, including Harper Collins Publishers and Random House, who now think of Des Moines as a great stop for their touring authors.
In association with the sponsorship, Davis Brown Attorney Charlie Wittmack will moderate on Wednesday, April 18, at 6:30 PM at the Roosevelt High School Library for Author Greg Mortenson.
On May 22, 2003, Charlie Wittmack became the first Iowan to reach the summit of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. This achievement was the culmination of a seven-year project that took him on more than a dozen major expeditions to five continents, including many of the world’s tallest and most dangerous peaks. Since his epic on Mount Everest, Charlie has become a distinguished graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law, and has been a judicial extern for the honorable Robert W. Pratt in the United States Federal District Court. Today, Charlie is an attorney with the Davis Brown law firm in Des Moines, and continues to pursue a life of high adventure. He is frequently heard telling stories of his greatest adventure - his marriage to Katie Scharf, and the recent purchase of their first home.
In 1993, a mountaineer named Greg Mortenson drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram Mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2. Moved by the inhabitants’ kindness, he promised to return and build a school. His book, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time, is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome, and is now a New York Times bestseller. Mortenson will discuss how over the past decade, he has built not one but fifty-five schools—especially for girls in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban. Greg will speak on Wednesday, April 18, at 6:30 PM at the Roosevelt High School Library.
