Last fall we sent 25 pair of assorted KEEN hiking boots and shoes to the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP). These were sent over with KEEN Ambassador Christian Santelices and 5 people who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Here’s what Christian had to say:
You and the KEEN team have made a big impact here in Tanzania. I delivered the shoes to the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP) here in Moshi, Tanzania, at the base of Kilimanjaro. The shoes will be put into the gear borrowing program that they have set up. Porters can come in and borrow equipment and clothing to be able to do their jobs better on the mountain and help them earn a more sustainable living. KPAP also works with local outfitters to provide better working conditions for porters including making sure they are fed and paid appropriately. I met the staff as well as some of the porters. Really great folks working hard to make the lives of people working on the mountain better.
KEEN Ambassador Program:
At KEEN we are always looking for people in every community who are stewards of the outdoors and bring a new perspective to the idea of living a Hybrid.Life. At KEEN we strive to bring you closer to the outdoors by empowering our ambassadors to do the same for us! Learn more here.
On September 9th, a group of 11 people from KEEN went to Woodlawn Elementary School in Portland, Oregon to deliver more than 500 backpacks filled with school supplies to the entire school. The KEEN Garage had an in-store campaign where they pledged to donate a filled backpack for every pair of shoes sold to Schoolhouse Supplies. The kids, ranging in ages from kindergarten to 8th grade were so excited for and appreciative of their new packs. Each KEEN Skyline and Eaton backpack contained loose leaf paper, crayons or markers, erasers, glue sticks and pencils. What a great way to start the school year!
Donated backpacks and school supplies
The ever important eraser!
Ready for delivery
Carting the backpacks into the school
Ready for the school year
The volunteer group
This effort is part of the KGW School Supply Drive to encourage people to make cash and loose supply donations, with the purpose of sending 8,000 local area children back to school with the basic school supplies that they couldn’t otherwise afford.
The goal of Warm Current is to help connect communities with their water resources by increasing access to surfing—both for their pure enjoyment and to inspire the need for environmental protection. To this end, Warm Current diverts usable wetsuits from the waste stream and donates them to individuals or groups in underprivileged communities. Warm Current also provides under-served youth in the Pacific Northwest with surf camps that show them the exhilaration and joy of connecting with nature through surfing.
June 27th marks the beginning of a movement for Warm Current that you can participate in. The Faces of Warm Current is a fundraising campaign that will bring money into the organization so that they can purchase new surfboards, wetsuits and a surf camp trailer (which you can be a part of, literally). By making a $5 donation, you can create a square with a message or photo that will then become a part of the mosaic to cover the kids surf camp trailer.
Platform is a section in which Wend Magazine donates space to activists working to make the planet a better place to live.
Dan Austin is executive director and co-founder of 88Bikes, a nonprofit organization that delivers bicycles to children who face challenges due to war, conflict, poverty, disease or other regional hardships. To learn more about 88Bikes, visit 88Bikes.org.
Wend: Tell us about the humble beginnings of 88Bikes.
Austin: My brother, Jared, and I were going to do a ride across Cambodia, and we decided to give our bikes away at the end. Through some contacts at National Geographic, we found a good orphanage in Phnom Penh. We realized a couple (of) weeks before we left, though, that there were 88 kids in the orphanage, meaning 86 kids would be left out. So we threw a fundraiser, launched a website and within four days we had all the donations we needed to give bikes to all 88 kids. It was such a scene of jubilation and pure, unbridled happiness that we knew right then that we needed to do it again.
Click here to read the entire interview by WEND Magazine.
Audrey Martin posts the following on KEEN’s Facebook group page . . .
It was not easy but after 5 years of wonderful adventures I decided it was time to donate a pair of my old Keens to make room for the new ones (Harvest MJ, Roatan and more to come!) My Keens have been to Mexico, horesback riding, parasailing, climbed mountains, chased children and are still in great shape! Donating them to a good cause will allow somebody less fortuante to have their own adventures in these amazing shoes.
From April 19 – April 25, KEEN sold a total of 360 items that qualified a KEEN time pledge to Waterkeeper Alliance volunteer hours.
That means KEEN employees will donate 7.5 days of time to working for clean water.
About the KEEN Earth Day Challenge
For each pair of Coronado shoes purchased between April 18 – 25, 2009 via our online shop (www.keenfootwear.com) and for each Harvest Marshall wallet purchased ($10) at any of the Earth Day events listed below, we pledged 10 minutes of employee time to help conserve our planet’s water resources with Waterkeeper’s Alliance.
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
YouTube
