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BOOT ISSUE RESOLVED: Thanks,
Footwear
Specialties!
Dear Colleagues,
As
most of you know, for the last few years I have
periodically asked you for used hiking boots to send to
the field crew in Betampona. Your generosity is much appreciated,
but asking for, unpacking, sizing, sorting, and repacking
boots was taking a lot of time, and often we didn't have
the sizes or quality that were needed. I decided to try
to find a boot manufacturer interested in donating boots
for the Betampona crew.
Wayne Elsey, CEO of Footwear Specialties
came to our rescue -- he will donate new boots for all
the conservation agents every six months, which is about
how fast things wear out there. I originally asked for discontinued
styles or seconds, but Wayne insisted on sending us the
best.
 I'm not
telling you this so you can try to hit up Wayne for boots
(don't even consider it). I'm telling you because the boots
are really nice and I thought I might be able to return
the favor if some of you were considering new boots for
your zoo staff. You can go to Footwear Specialties
and from there to websites for all three of their lines
of boots and shoes. The Nautilus Footwear ones look like the best ones
for zoo folks (and Betampona). Here is Charlie's e-mail
about the boots that I received from Madagascar this morning
-- you can see that they were really appreciated:
Hi
Eva,
Sorry to be so long getting back to you on the boots.
As Andrea said, they were an enormous hit. Got as much
of a response as I have ever seen from those guys -- they
are very, very pleased. And they even all fit! It is so
important for the agents to have reliable footwear in
the forest mostly because as you know, the terrain is
so steep and often slippery. Jean Noel was all excited
because he even was able to scale a branchless tree trunk
with ease, thanks to the new boots! They are spoiled forever
now.
Please relay our gratitude to the kind Monsieur/company
that has donated the boots -- they really do make a world
of difference to our research team's ability to work in
the forest.
Thanks to you as well, Eva, for arranging it all. Would
not have happened otherwise.
All the best,
Charlie
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