Each month, Helping Hands features a mortgage professional or group that has volunteered to lend a hand to others in need

Ivanna C. Sukkar

As published in Scotsman Guide's Commercial Edition, May 2007.

Name Chris Wise, president, Wise Point Solutions and Wise Point Investments

Project Participating in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Hike for Discovery in June

Site Grand Canyon, Ariz.

How Since 2005, the society's Hike for Discovery program has helped raise funds for curing leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma and for improving the quality of life for patients and their families.

Wise says he learned about the program through a mailer.

"I felt it was a good fit because I enjoy taking part in fund-raising events and was looking for a new way to give back," he says.

According to the event's Web site, participants such as Wise receive 14 to 18 weeks of training and support before the event. The society also provides transportation, lodging and social events during the trip to the hike location.

Wise participates in weekly training hikes in the Washington, D.C., area. The hikes get increasingly difficult each week, he says.

Since its inception, the hike program has grown to include 27 of the society's 66 chapters, according to Andrea Greif, the society's director of public relations.

In addition to the June Grand Canyon hike, others are planned for Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Yosemite National Park in California and Maui, Hawaii.

Why About 10 years ago, Wise's high school friend and baseball teammate Charlie Smith died of leukemia. Smith was 15."I'm doing this in memory and honor of him," says Wise, adding that he's still in touch with Smith's family.

Impact Wise hopes to raise more than $4,400 for the organizations. To help reach that goal, Wise Point Investments is donating 1 percent of its profits until it reaches that amount. Greif says the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society expects to raise $8 million from Hike for Discovery events in fiscal year 2007.

Try it www.hikefordiscovery.org

Ivanna C. Sukkar is an associate editor at Scotsman Guide. Reach her at (800) 297-6061 or ivanna@scotsmanguide.com.

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