I met John properly for the first time in December last year at the Climbing Hangar in Liverpool. We had a long chat – for John it was just a chat!
CAC was still in its early stages, T-shirts were printed and being sold, a facebook group had sprung up but his web site was yet to come online. However the was already a movement, a sense that this was going to get bigger, much bigger, than even John could have ever imagined.
Without thinking I blurted out I was going to Melloblocco and suggested I could take a few T-shirts and sell them in the evenings. We left it at that, but come May I had 200 tees in my van and heading towards sunny Italy.
Only it wasn’t sunny Italy. The weather gods didn’t seem to care that it was a special 10th anniversary edition and had been extended over 10 days to suit. The organisers had anticipated this possibility and had acquired some impressively sized tarps to cover most of the new hard boulders the top climbers would be trying. Unfortunately the mortals amongst us were confined to the climbing wall in the Centro Polyfunzionale and cursing the view out of the window which we had expected to leave well at home.
But boulderers dont mind beating there heads against a seemingly hopeless cause, if nothing else they understand perserverance. The event carried on, and those who weren’t strong enough to climb the covered boulders, either helped to dry them or drank and danced hard led by DJ Phill and John in an effort to appease the gods.
Well whatever happened it worked, because come the weekend the rain had appeased the tarps were being pulled back and the crushfest commenced.
Back in the tranquillity of the Centro Polyfunzionale I set up the first (as far as I know) European CAC retail establishment. After sorting the tees into first sex, size, then colour, there were an impressive array of permutations, i realised i would be needing a bigger table. i improvised up a quick sign, the typeface was wrong, but after my second attempt at least I had spelt it correctly. Giuseppe from the gazebo next door introduced himself. He had formed Climb for Life, an organisation set up to encourage people to donate bone marrow. Giu himself has been waiting for a transplant since 2010. As well as informing climbers about this important cause they were also testing bone marrow types of volunteers over the weekend. Between the two of us we had bought yet another new dimension to the melloblocco festival.
The tees trickled out, I was disappointed because I was so sure they would fly. By Saturday morning no more than 10.. and these were all to either people I knew or british people already aware of the Campaign. I started working out how much it would cost me to buy the job lot and give them away, would that do the campaign more good… I sure couldn’t just return them all to John after sounding so confident!
Sales of the tees picked up through Saturday and Sunday, the more people who were seen waring them, the more were sold. Some people donated more than the asking price, some bought 2, others needed advice from their friends or partners on the choice of colour!
The weekend climaxed on Sunday with the prize givings in front of a few hundred climbers. Pietro dal Pra introduced Climb for Life, Sportiva had supported them since they started, and I had the dubious honour of explaining Climbers Against Cancer, and to make the draw for the mat. It was somewhat intimidating, but an amazing opportunity the organisers had given us that it would have been criminal not to have taken it. Even if not everyone there didn’t buy a tee, or get their bone marrow tested at least they would know who we were and what we were doing there, and the next time they see our logo maybe the will, or at least pass it on to their friends.