Running an outdoor program like ours takes gear. Lots and lots of gear. One of the major long term projects for Y.E.T.I. over the past year has been to find and secure a suitable location to house all of this gear so that we can operate out of a centralized location.
Over the last year, we have found a plot owned by the Highline School District, obtained permission to use the land, inventoried and packed up all of our gear, and finally moved the shipping container that we use to store gear to the location. This was no small feat and we pulled it off just as the lease on our original location ran out!
Our next project was to clean up the lot, cut back some brush, and put in a fence around everything– and that’s where the fine folks at Avery Dennison stepped in!
Avery Dennison is a label making company and the team that reached out to us work with many prominent outdoor brands labeling apparel and gear. They were looking for a youth serving non profit that they could donate some time and physical labor to. There are times when companies will reach out to us looking to help. It can sometimes be tough to match what they are offering with the real world needs of our organization but this offer from Avery Dennison came at the perfect time. They had about 8 people who were ready to donate labor for an afternoon, and we had a huge pile of trash, junk, and construction supplies that we needed off the lot!
Once the crew met up at our gear container, our Program Director Sean gave Avery Dennison an introduction to who we are and what we do. Everyone on the team seemed to genuinely connect with our mission and were excited to be helping an organization that gives young people access to meaningful outdoor experiences.
The work went by in no time with the help of such a large crew! We had some good conversations about the important role that outdoor activities can play in student’s lives as well as some good laughs at one particularly arachnophobic member of the Avery Dennison team! We are so grateful for the fine folks over at Avery Dennison for helping us get this done and we are looking forward to future collaborations with the team. It is a long road to create the perfect space for Youth, Gear, and Caring adults to come together to live their outdoor dreams, but we took another step forward on the path with the help from a great crew!
Over the next month we will have a team from Microsoft out to help us continue the momentum and will be working with the school district to add additional security measures to the property as we move over the rest of our vehicles. Some organization have the capacity to fund our school clubs like Grayl, other provide equipment such as REI and Outdoor research and still other roll up there sleeves and help us move and repair gear! In Certainly take a village and we apricate all the help! If your work team is looking for projects and ways to give back reach out to info@goyeti.org.
