Aurora native on board with husband’s life mission

Aurora native Lauren (Paschke) Weasel will take steps on a life-time mission to set lofty goals and be part of a greater cause in the coming weeks, tracking her husband Jacob as he climbs to the top of Mount Everest on the other side of the globe.
A 2002 Aurora graduate, the daughter of Larry and Shelley Paschke, Lauren shared that she is excited for and extremely proud of her husband for setting such lofty goals, though admittedly a bit anxious about the dangers that lie ahead as he climbs one of the world’s tallest mountains.
“It’s his dream,” she said of Jacob’s trek to Everest, which towers more than 29,000 feet above the skyline in Nepal. “It’s a pretty lofty one, both physically and financially, but things fell into place for him to allow him to do this.”
Jacob left the family’s home in Rapid City, S.D., April 10 and is now in the early stages of a multi-step journey that will end at the summit of Mount Everest. Lauren and their three children will follow closely as Jacob makes his first journey to base camp in Nepal this week, then proceeds through the various climbing stages, as weather permits, with a goal of returning home by the end of May.
It will be a long, challenging journey for Jacob, one which Lauren said will offer life lessons for their children as well.
“For our kids to see him put in the months of training in the gym and here at home, the perseverance, stamina and energy that it takes, the dedication it takes, that’s a great life lesson for them,” she said in a phone interview from Rapid City. “It took a lot of hard work that nobody saw or recognized, so that’s how we look at it for our kids, or at least I do, showing them to live your dreams, but that it takes work to get there.”
As detailed in a story recently published in the Rapid City Journal (see experts of that story in attached article), Jacob’s venture is about more than mountain climbing. Proud of his Lakota Sioux heritage, Jacob has a life mission of helping Native Americans set and achieve lofty goals. Toward that end, he and his wife have established the Wopila (pronounced woh-pee-lah) Project, a nonprofit organization now in its infancy.
“The word wopila means out of all that we’ve been given, we give back,” explained Lauren, who is a Wopila Project board member. “We are really wanting to impress upon the community the seven Lakota values as a kind of a call higher up, a call to who you are, and to live by those values. That’s kind of the basis of the nonprofit entity that we have started. It’s brand new so Everest is the first big thing that he wanted to do.”
The Everest trip is one of several planned projects designed to inspire Native American youth, particularly those in the Rapid City area.
“Later, he’ll go into some of the classrooms and speak to inspire these native kids and other kids, too,” Lauren said, noting that the dropout rate for Native American kids in local high schools is nearly 70 percent. “The issues within the community as a whole and the Native American community are complex, as they always are, so we’re being delicate there, but also wanting to inspire kids and call them up.”

Growing up in Aurora
As for her own childhood, Lauren has fond memories of spending the first 18 years of her life in Aurora.
“There were several teachers at Aurora High School that were great and I still to this day remember just admiring and respecting them,” she said, singling out Dick Shanou as one of her favorites. “There were a lot of people who shaped some things for me and I have a lot of happy, fond memories from growing up there.”
Lauren was a cheerleader, among her other many activities at AHS, though she never expected that experience to open a door for her later in life.
“I was asked to be a cheerleader coach at Rapid City Christian High School, where my kids go,” she shared. “I didn’t think cheerleading would be on my radar 20 years later, but I did it because I remember the influences I had from my cheer coaches at Aurora High School. At that time it was Joni Huebert and Shelly Wofford and I would say that Shelly Wofford had a huge impact on my life, just personally. I’m hoping to give back in that same way as a cheer coach.”
Lauren went on to study make-up artistry at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, eventually becoming an esthetician, handling facials, chemical peels and various forms of skin care. She met Jacob while in Omaha, and the couple were married in 2006. Lauren became a stay-at-home mom with the birth of their first child, and now feels blessed to be able to focus on raising three teenagers, including sons Leighton and Judah, and daughter Isabelle, ages 15, 14 and 12.
Lauren returned to Aurora with her family last summer for her 20th year class reunion, though admitted that the family doesn’t have a lot of time to travel due to Jacob’s commitments as a trauma and emergency room surgeon with Monument Health in Rapid City.
Asked how she feels about her husband’s trek to the top of Mount Everest, Lauren said she is so proud, as well as a bit anxious.
“People ask me ‘Are you okay?’” she said. “I’m great, but check on me in two weeks when I’ve been a single parent with three teenagers.”
For anyone interested in following Jacob on his journey, he will be posting updates on his Instagram page. There is also information available on his guide, a world-famous mountaineer named Nims Purja, who is featured in a Netflix series called “14 Peaks.”