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NORTH ATTLEBORO -- Michael Wood's heart is set on standing atop Mount Kilimanjaro in less than two weeks. Placing a memento of his daughter Olivia at the summit is his goal.

Olivia died from a congenital heart defect on Feb. 25, 2003, "nine days after her eighth birthday."

Nearly five years to the day later, Michael will climb Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

So far, Wood has raised more than $5,000 in donations for the trip, which will start Jan. 31.

Part of the proceeds will benefit the scholarship that Olivia's parents, Michael and Robyn of North Attleboro, have established at the Foxboro Regional Charter School. Ten percent of the proceeds will go toward the Friends of the Tanzania Schools, which provides educational support to schools around Kilimanjaro.

Olivia was a second-grader at the Foxboro charter school, and her identical twin sister Julia is a seventh-grader.

Wood expects to reach the mountain summit Feb. 10 or 11.

"I know it's going to be an emotional thing. I've been working on this the past two years," he said.

Wood expects to return home by Feb. 16, when Julia will celebrate her 13th birthday.

Olivia's absence has been hard "for all of us, Julia especially. She's been a twin her whole life for eight years. Now she's become a singleton," Michael said.

"Every day is hard. You always think about it. We see Olivia through Julia's eyes all the time."

Now in its fifth year, the Olivia Wood Scholarship Fund gives a scholarship to a charter school senior each year. The school also has a memorial bench.

But Wood wanted to do something special for the fifth anniversary of Olivia's death.

He has worked in the fitness industry since 1988. He is the chief fitness officer at Koko Fitness, which develops interactive software and hardware for the fitness and wellness industry, and is founder of the Sports Performance Group, an award-winning fitness consulting company. Men's Journal magazine named him one of America's top 100 trainers in 2004 and 2005.

Kilimanjaro will be Wood's first "high" mountain. He has climbed Mount Greylock, at 3,491 feet, the highest point in Massachusetts. He also has climbed the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

At 19,340 feet, Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, and the tallest freestanding mountain rise in the world.

"I wanted to do this climb, because it's challenging," he said.

Wood's training regiment has included trail running through the Blue Hills in Milton. He also hikes indoors and outdoors with a weighted backpack.

"I'm out every weekend climbing," he said.

Wood says he is turning the climb into a "physiological expedition" as well as a personal mission.

He will carry a global positioning system watch that measures his heart rate and the calories he's burning, and his altitude.

Wood will spend a day camped at Kilimanjaro's base to acclimate to the altitude.

He then will climb for 10 days. At that pace, he would reach the summit Feb. 10 or 11.

"February is the month you want to climb. It's a better month, weather-wise," Michael said.

Wood also will carry a satellite phone. He'll text messages to Julia to update his progress on his blog, www.climbingmtkilimanjaro.blogspot.com.

MICHAEL GELBWASSER can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.