Upon purchasing a new bike or gear, you often have to make room in your stable (garage, basement, attic, closet, etc.) to accommodate the new acquisition. This can either mean taking it to a used gear store to have them sell it, you doing the work to sell it yourself through an online outlet, giving it away or throwing it in the trash. We have mentioned the donation option of your cycling gear in the post Re-Cycling Your Old Bike Gear, but what do you do with your other outdoor gear? There are non-profit organizations that will redirect your old outdoor gear to new owners in need. One such organization is Gear to Grow and they need your help. It appears that some companies have already helped Gear to Grow substantially with donations of tents during the 2011 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Show, but there seems to be some missing poles. In what seems as an almost comical problem, Gears to Grow has a new gear drive, “Calling All Poles”, with the sole mission of getting poles for these tents.
Gears to Grow is calling upon outdoor retailers and merchants to help them collect tent poles to use in these perfectly good tent shells.
While the donated tent shells are seemingly flawless, there is one thing missing…tent poles! With more than 70 non-profit groups across the U.S., many of our beneficiaries have old tent shells that need to be replaced, but others are in need of full tent sets.
In order to reach our goal of collecting enough poles to redistribute full tent sets out to our beneficiary groups, Gear to Grow is hosting a “Calling All Poles” campaign. As a part of this campaign, Gear to Grow is looking for retailers and merchants across the country to act as official drop-off locations for the public to bring in their gently used or surplus tent poles.
The “Calling All Poles” launched on Oct. 3, 2011, and will remain open for 60 days. Gear to Grow has provided retailers willing to participate with flyers to post promoting the campaign, and they are encouraging them to promote this gear drive through social media outlets. They are also asking retailers to dig a little deeper and pick up the cost of shipping the collected tent poles to Gear to Grow, but in return, they are able to provide receipts for tax deductions and write-offs for shipping costs.
If you are interested in donating tent poles and need the location of a retailer near you or simply want to get more information about donating gear in general, send an e-mail to contact@geartogrow.org or visit their website. Gear to Grow helps more than 70 outdoor non-profit programs, won’t you help them?