Corning-Painted Post School District Foundation

The family of Paul Dohn and Heather Boek are raising funds to build an “Adam Dohn Climbing Wall” at the Corning-Painted Post High School to honor the life of their son Adam, CPPHS class of 2016, who passed away in 2021.

Many friends and family have asked us about services and charitable donations to remember Adam.

Adam’s interest and passion for climbing began in high school. With no indoor climbing facility in the area, he and his friends had to climb the cliffs around town, which are not suited for safe climbing. Because of Adam’s experiences, we decided to reach out to the school district about building a climbing wall, and our idea was enthusiastically received.

Once the wall is completed, a dedication ceremony will be held to remember Adam.

So far, over 60% of the required funding has been secured.

Here is what the people of the school district wrote about the Adam Dohn Climbing Wall:

“The Corning-Painted Post School District is honored and excited to house the Adam Dohn Climbing Wall. Since the merger of high schools in 2015, our physical education teachers, who have spent decades teaching traditional team sports and exercise activities, are focusing on the tremendous fitness benefits of lifelong health and fitness activities in addition to team-based sports that are more traditionally taught in a high school physical education program. They want activities like rock climbing that students can continue to do after they graduate from high school and benefit from for a lifetime. The addition of a climbing wall in our CPP High School offers us this opportunity to continue to move forward with more lifelong skills.

Rock climbing provides challenges for people of all shapes, sizes, and abilities, including students with different levels of disability. Offering a new course like rock climbing provides opportunities to receive physical education credit in a way unlike other opportunities currently available at CPPHS.”

Why Rock Climbing?

“Rock climbing is a physically challenging exercise that builds self-esteem and requires problem-solving skills that require “outside the box” thinking. The climbing wall levels the playing field for all students because you don’t have to be an “athlete” to participate.”

Strength and Balance

“Climbing itself helps build upper body strength and improves balance, endurance and flexibility. Climbers require balance, which not all people are born with, but can learn. Flexibility can make climbing a route easier. Flexible climbers might be able to high step or bend backwards in order to reach a higher hold. Endurance allows climbers to avoid becoming fatigued on longer and more strength-intensive routes. The fitness gained by climbing cannot be argued.”

Problem solving/Collaboration/Team-building/Trust/Communication

“Every route is a puzzle. Each move requires a climber to think about the next. The moves need to be planned out, but there also needs to be flexibility to change and adapt. These problem solving skills easily transfer over to life skills that help a person succeed with everyday life tasks. In addition, students have to trust and encourage each other. They have to know they are safe and learn to work together to support the other person’s climb.”

Goal Setting/Well-being

“Students can set goals and decide which steps must be taken to achieve those goals. Climbing can be a self-driven sport. The only real competition a climber faces is themselves and the goals they set for themselves. In most cases, it is the climber, belayer, and the wall, as it allows students to learn and push themselves at their own pace. As an IB school district, we want our students to be risk-takers and to try new things in life. We want them to be problem-solvers and communicators. The addition of the Adam Dohn Climbing Wall helps us create these opportunities for our students. We are looking at installing an Everlast Climbing Inc. top-rope design to give students even more of a challenge. The top-rope walls provide a vertical climbing challenge and will be custom-designed to fit our facility.”