By Roberta Ward Smiley | CEO and Founder
I was going through the pics I have stored on my iPhone recently and was astounded at the stages of growth for this project. Have a look for yourself in this report.
Thank you for being generous in supporting this project. It’s been a work in progress for more than 2 1/2 years and together we have planted over 35,000 native trees in a continuous corridor along the Rio Sol. The river travels, snakelike, through all three Maleku villages or Palenques and the trees are planted along the banks from 10 to 15 meters wide.
It all began when Sole Technology, the makers of etnies Shoes and other great sports gear, contacted us in 2010 to inform us that the board of directors and CEO of the company had voted unanimously to donate $17,500 to buy the 35,000 trees that would be planted with the Maleku indigenous tribe. Pierre Andres Senizergues, founder and CEO of etnies, is an ex-world champion skateboarder and we have remained friends ever since the first tree was planted. Frequently, when I post updates about LRFF or about the Rio Sol project, he will write to say “keep up the good work”.
Last month I sent the photos you see here to Pierre after he wrote one of these notes asking if I had any photos of “our” projects development. He was astounded by the before and after photos of the Viento Fresco property and happy to see his old friend Bienvenido, President of the Maleku Tribal Council. In fact he was so impressed he told his art director who contacted me last week asking me to send the photos to him so they can include them in their latest catalog. The donations from etnies was promoted by the company as a campaign called “Buy a Shoe, Plant a Tree”. The idea is to let the customers see how great the trees they planted are doing.
Pierre’s life story is an amazing account of a poor guy finding his passion, skateboarding, dedicating his whole life to it, traveling across the sea to California, becoming the world champion skateboarder and, after retiring, founding Sole Technology. Even his company is solar powered, check out the link to read about Pierre Andrea and his responsible company.
Thank you all for accompanying us on this great journey, there is still more to come. But until then…
Let’s Get Planting!!
Links:
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