Mountain Hardwear, Inc. and Montrail, both owned by Columbia Sportswear, announced the 2010 recipients their respective Gives Back Grant programs. Mountain Hardwears primary focus for the first half of the year is Helping to Create the Next Generation of Outdoor Enthusiasts. In the second half of the year, the focus will shift to supporting research about the fresh water crises occurring in mountainous regions of the world.


For the first half of the year, Mountain Hardwear will once again focus on funding and raising awareness about organizations that provide opportunities for underprivileged youth to attend an outdoor camp.  Ten camps across the country where chosen to be part of the program. In addition to receiving funds, the camps benefit from added traffic to their websites driven by Mountain Hardwears outreach and social media efforts. For every visitor to the Gives Back landing page and clicks on the Send a Kid to Camp button between now and April 15, 2010, Mountain Hardwear will donate one dollar towards the cost of camp for a youngster who would not normally have that opportunity, up to $40,000 total.    
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<!–[endif]–>The following programs are part of the 2010 Send a Kid to Camp programs:



  • Big City Mountaineers-Denver, Colorado
  • City Wild-Denver, Colorado
  • Girl Ventures-San Francisco, California

  • Kismet Rock Foundation – North Conway, New Hampshire

  • Outdoor Outreach – San Diego, California
  • San Jose Inner City Outings, Sierra Club-San Jose, California
  • St. Louis Inner City Outings, Sierra Club-St. Louis, Missouri
  • SOS Outreach – Avon, Colorado
  • Summer Search – New York, New York
  • Youth Enrichment Strategies (YES) – Richmond, California


Additional Mountain Hardwear Gives Back grants for 2010 are awarded to the following organizations:

Montrails primary focus has been narrowed to support trail running as a healthy lifestyle choice. For 2010, the board recognizes a local need for support of community races and school running programs in Montrails backyard of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Programs supported by Montrail for 2010 include:



  •                 Richmond YMCA Bayfront Run
  •                 Berkeley Athletic Fund
  •                 Richmond/Oakland area middle school running programs
  •                 Conservation Alliance
  •                 HERA Climb4Life Run

Montrails secondary focus on maintaining and preserving healthy trails was supported with a fundraiser at the Winter Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, Utah in January. Montrail sold the Sabino Trail shoe to raise funds and awareness for wilderness designation of the Hardrock 100 Trail in Southern Colorado.

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