On a late Thursday night last month, all Portland-based KEENers received an urgent email from Ken, our Chief Financial Officer, asking for help.
He was looking for volunteers to join him and a caravan of KEEN vehicles heading to Los Angeles to deliver nearly 15,000 pairs of shoes and boots to firefighters and community-run organizations helping people impacted by the devastating wildfires earlier this year. The team was assembled the next day. And by Sunday morning, they were loading trucks and trailers with boxes of shoes and KEENers eager to help distribute them to folks in need.
“You know, we always say we're not in the business to make footwear – we're making footwear so that we can do good in the world,” Ken says. “And that really came together and you could feel it. You could really feel why we're here.”
KEENers used their personal service leave hours to spend a very full work week unloading, organizing, storing, and re-loading boxes for delivery. In addition to Ken, we had Stew from our Portland Garage serving as inventory manager, Michelle from fan services, Kyle from our social team, Will from product development, Scott, Patrick, and Karsen from marketing, Sam from business technology, and Kirsten from the KEEN Effect, the department responsible for helping us put our values in motion every day. Plus there were so many people behind the scenes who dropped everything to pull together thousands of boots and a way to store and distribute them in L.A.
“The way that the team rallied was something special,” Ken says. “It was a full team effort. I mean everybody chipped in.”
Once the caravan reached Los Angeles, we delivered shoes to the Mutual Aid Los Angeles Network, National Day Laborers Organizing Network, Boys and Girls Club of Malibu Disaster Relief Center, Hike Clerb, L.A. Clothing Drive, Pasadena Job Center, We Explore Earth, Good360, COPE Preparedness, and U.S. Forest Service firefighters. We also made a special delivery to one KEEN Fan who lost their home.
Our fan services team had reached out to folks in the affected areas who had orders being processed when the wildfires broke out to ensure they were safe and confirm whether they still wanted us to proceed with their shipments. We spoke with two people who had tragically lost their homes and had no place for us to deliver their orders. So, while we were in LA, we were able to reconnect with one of them and hand-deliver their KEEN shoes, plus gift new shoes to the rest of their family members.
Giving back and building community are at the heart of KEEN. Within days of the fire, we routed $30,000 in cash to three organizations working on the ground, but we wanted to do more. Personally delivering nearly $2.8 million in boots – literally getting boots on the ground – gave so much back to all of us who were able to be there in person and lend a hand.
“There are so many of us who want to do things like this and don’t know where to start,” Karsen adds. “This experience was truly an opportunity to live into KEEN’s core value of doing the right thing together and to do so in a thoughtful way.”.
• Donate to Wildfire Relief: Every little bit helps, especially in the months following the wildfire when support starts to wane. We prioritized working with organizations within the Mutual Aid network. You can donate directly to the Mutual Aid LA Network (MALAN) and funds will be distributed to small, local efforts. (And consider donating to organizations, like Protect Our Winters, that are working to mitigate the effects of climate change.)
• Volunteer Your Time: Food banks and supply drives have an ongoing need for help. A few include People's Struggle San Fernando Valley and Immigorg.
• Help LA Residents Find Joy: Hike Clerb is curating a bunch of cool events around healing in nature and restoration of nature in the LA area. You can support their upcoming programming here.
