SmartWool Corporation announced the first round of grant recipients from the new SmartWool Advocacy Program including The Breast Cancer Fund, Girls on the Run, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, Pacific Crest Trail Association and Big City Mountaineers.

Chip Coe, SmartWool President said, “We feel very fortunate to have the support of the outdoor community, and we are committed to helping that community grow and thrive.”

Awarded semi-annually, the SmartWool Advocacy Program was born of a desire to efficiently give back to the communities in which SmartWool's customers and employees live. It is comprised of two separate funds using different funding mechanisms – The SmartWool Advocacy Fund is funded by 10% of net revenues of online sales from SmartWool's new e-commerce website and the SmartWool Breast Cancer Fund is financed by 2% of sales of women's specific socks marked with a pink ribbon.

The SmartWool Breast Cancer Fund has awarded a grant to The Breast Cancer Fund.

“We are grateful to SmartWool for recognizing the crucial importance of breast cancer prevention,” said Jeanne Rizzo, R.N., Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund. “This grant will greatly assist the Breast Cancer Fund in our mission to identify and eliminate the preventable causes of the disease.”

SmartWool's grant will support the Climb Against Odds program, BCF's major mountain expeditions that raise awareness, hope and generates funds to prevent breast cancer.

The SmartWool Advocacy Fund has awarded grants to:

  • Girls on the Run. Girls on the Run is a 10-week after school program designed to enhance character development by combining physical activity and experiential learning in girls 3rd through 5th grade. The SmartWool grant will provide scholarships.

    “SmartWool's grant will enable us to reach and empower young girls to participate in our program. As an all-inclusive program, we often cannot reach those who need us the most – thank you for giving us this opportunity!” said Rebecca Evans , Program Director of Girls on the Run.

  • Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado. The SmartWool grant will provide general administrative support to this organization. Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado motivates and enables citizens to be active stewards of Colorado's public lands.

    “Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado is extremely honored to be
    selected during the inaugural year of SmartWool's Advocacy Fund. We look forward to SmartWool's continued support as we work together to protect Colorado's wonderful trails,” said Keith Desrosiers, spokesperson for Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado.

  • Pacific Crest Trail Association. The PCT has been awarded a grant to support a new regional representative position and increase volunteerism for a 500-mile section of the trail.

    “Thank you to SmartWool for their
    support of our program. This will really help to establish a new chapter in the Northern California/Southern Oregon region and provide ongoing trail maintenance efforts on the Pacific Crest Trail. We appreciate the financial support, and our volunteers will love the donation of SmartWool socks,” said Liz Bergeron, Executive Director of the Pacific Crest Trail Association.

  • Big City Mountaineers . Big City Mountaineers provides urban teenage youth in need of positive adult mentoring with challenging, safe outdoor experiences to build self-esteem and positively impact their lives.

    “We are proud to have been selected as a SmartWool grant recipient. SmartWool's contribution will allow BCM to bring our unique and important program to a larger number of teens than we had expected, as well as outfit
    participants of our program with the highest quality performance apparel,” said Mark Godley, Executive Director for Big City Mountaineers.

Administration and execution of the SmartWool Advocacy Program will be
undertaken by a board comprised solely of SmartWool employees elected by
their peers. Additionally, all SmartWool employees will be awarded a new
benefit, enabling each to volunteer as many as 20 paid hours per year to
help local non-profit organizations. This allows SmartWool and its
employees to supply not only monetary awards, but to contribute much needed
labor as well. SmartWool encourages all interested non-profit organizations
to download grant guidelines and applications at:
http://www.smartwool.com/advocacy. The next SmartWool Advocacy Program
grant deadline is September 1st, 2005.