The Pacific Mountain Institute Lauches the Gear to Grow Program

The Gear to Grow Program places outdoor gear donated by premier retailers and manufacturers into the hands of organizations getting individuals involved in outdoor recreational activities.

On October 30, 2009, Backcountry.com donated over 1200 Broner brand Winter Hats to the Gear to Grow Program. In less than a week we distributed these hats to CityWILD, Bay Area Wilderness Training, Big City Mountaineers and Leave No Trace. Thank you to everyone at Backcountry.com who made this happen, in particular, Brian Boyd, who took the time to steer this project to the right people in the company.

The Gear to Grow Program allows outdoor retailers and manufacturers to donate gear for a tax deduction and for the benefit of educating the public and getting more people involved in outdoor recreation. Simply put, we broker gear between the donors and organizations getting people involved in the outdoors.

The mission of the Pacific Mountain Institute is to foster innovative solutions for complex social and environmental problems, with a primary focus on researching, developing, and incubating projects that are based on social entrepreneurship. The purpose of focusing on social entrepreneurial projects is two-fold; first it provides a path for individual project to be self-sustaining and thus deliver services more consistently over time, and secondly it places the emphasis on engaging the general public as key decision-makers for addressing social and environmental issues.