The Moving Mountains members and their nominees for 2002 follow:
Access Fund Clif Bar
American Alpine Club Rock & Ice
American Canoe Association Subaru of America
American Hiking Society Thorlos
American Whitewater Teva
Appalachian Trail Conference Merrill Footwear
Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education Brunton
Climbing for Life Trango
Grand Canyon Private Boater¡¦s Association Hyside Whitewater Inflatables
Washington Trail Association Cascade Designs
Winter Wildlands Alliance Little Bear Snowshoes
Here is AW¡¦s description of Teva¡¦s efforts this year:
Cascade Designs supports the efforts of Washington Trails with donations thousands of dollars in cash, products and in-kind services each year, but more importantly, the company and its employees support the efforts of Washington Trail through direct involvement. More than 25 percent of the Cascade Designs staff has volunteered for at least one day of trail maintenance in the past five years, several individuals have put in at least 40 hours of volunteer labor on trails. Cascade Designs has even given employees paid days-off to go out on volunteer work parties.
Teva, the anchor brand for Deckers Corporation, has taken an aggressive step toward integrating consumer-marketing programs with their support for natural resource protection.
This year, Teva sponsored and supported the implementation of the American Whitewater Freestyle Tour, renamed the Teva Tour for 2002. Thirteen whitewater events that consist of freestyle, downriver, and ¡¥boatercross¡¦ components will culminate with a National Championship.
In addition, Teva sponsored viewings of Liquid Lifestyles: Aerated (an adventure whitewater paddling movie) at over two dozen venues across the country. American Whitewater enlisted the assistance of volunteers for each stop on the tour to showcase regional conservation and access successes.
The American Whitewater Freestyle sponsorship enhanced AW¡¦s ability to increase the focus on its mission, ¡¥to protect and restore America¡¦s whitewater resources and enhance opportunities to enjoy them safely.¡¦ Organizing groups whose events are on the schedule represent river venues whose access and/or quality has been threatened. These events facilitate our educational outreach and membership development, and make a commitment to donating a share of their proceeds to AW.
AW has provided to TEVA the effort and smarts of countless volunteers whose presence, influence and enthusiasm in local river communities enable a ¡¥national¡¦ series to be tailored, personalized and relevant to local participants and attendees.
The significance of this sponsorship is larger than the resources Teva has offered to American Whitewater. Implications for other manufacturers and user groups stem from a marketing-oriented commitment:
„h Since AW is one of just a small handful of national conservation / outdoor recreation organizations in the country, Teva saw that co-operative marketing would ¡¥fit¡¦ their tiered (national/local) promotional strategy.
„h Teva achieved grassroots presence with a deeper level of rapport than if they had planned and staffed with corporate personnel.
„h Teva Tour sponsorship provided the resources for AW to plan, administer and promote our freestyle series with greater capacity and confidence. This program requires enormous staff and volunteer staff time and expense so will continue to be scrutinized for its value.
„h The movie tour enabled AW to promote programming by illustrating the benefits of our work at a personal level in over two dozen venues requiring only minimal hard cost.
Teva has shown both courage and tremendous innovative ability in stepping forward with these initiatives. They confirmed their growing expertise as a marketer, and whitewater river conservation efforts will benefit.