History
The concept for Survivor's Outdoor Experience (SOE) came during conversations between Jack Ganster and his sister, Kathleen Ganster. The two would walk together while Jack was visiting their hometown near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the winter of 2006. Jack had spent the winter of 2004 there after having surgery to remove a brain tumor. Jack had recently sold his store, Olympic Mountaineering, and was considering his next adventure in life.
Kathleen reminded Jack that at the time of being diagnosed that he had said "I have no reason to say 'why me?' when there are so many people diagnosed with cancer every day. The question should be 'why not me?'. Now I need to decide what to do with this experience."
Jack is now currently NED (negative evidence of disease) and decided to use the third aniversary 11/02/06, as the start date for SOE.
In addition to his experience as an outdoor skills educator and store owner, Jack has also been writing artictles about outdoor recreation since 1989 and about his life as a cancer survivor since 2005. He will be using many of the skills and knowledge that he has acquired for this project.
Kathleen is a writer, professor and editor residing in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania. She has written over 600 feature articles on various topics. Over the years, she has written grant proposals that have resulted in over $1,000,000 in funding for various non-profit organizations. She also teaches grant writing at the college level. Additionally, she has extensive public relations experience.