Announcing Dill Pickle Gear’s first benefit raffle: Shop Aprons

As cyclists, we spend a lot of time in the outdoors. We love the fresh air and the scenic countryside. We may not all have the same feelings about the outcome of last week’s election. But I hope we can agree that whatever the choices made by the incoming Congress and President, the outdoor environments we love are worth protecting. 

So for this month, we’re raffling off four of these Dill Pickle Gear shop aprons to benefit the Sierra Club and the incredible work it does to defend against an incoming administration whose top priorities include dismantling existing protections of air, water, wilderness areas, endangered species, and global climate change. The aprons are made of pre-washed high-quality cotton denim with a variety of pockets of various sizes. Each apron has two places where the pockets are reinforced with vinyl so they can hold up against sharper items such as scribes, mechanical pencils, cable cutters, etc. They have comfortable 1″ straps that cross in back instead of pulling on your neck, and they buckle with adjustable side-release buckles. 

Apron front, short version

Apron front, short version

 

Apron back

Apron back

 

Apron front, long version

Apron front, long version

 

As you can see, there is a shorter version and a longer version, and there are two of each. I’m the one in the picture, and I am about 5’6″, to give you some idea of how the sizes look. Raffle winners will get their pick of short or long in the order of the drawing. 

Raffle tickets are $5 apiece, with no additional purchases necessary. The drawing will take place on December 15 and aprons will be shipped promptly to the winners.

All proceeds will go to the Sierra Club, which is perhaps the most influential environmental organization in the country. Its programs range from advocating for legislation at the state and national level to doing the everyday maintenance of trails in our back yards. Last summer, a music workshop I was a part of shared camp with a group of Sierra Club members who were spending their vacation doing just that – working to build and maintain trails in public parks, picking up trash, and controlling invasive species. If you had to pick one organization whose efforts extend from picking up trash in a state park to holding polluters accountable for the damage they cause to promoting the development of renewable energy, the Sierra Club would be it. 

Raffles are fun and all, but please don’t let it stop you from giving directly, either. If you want to make your own tax-deductible donation, you can donate to the Sierra Club Foundation here. Please donate what you can; environmental damage is not something that can just be repealed later. Destroyed habitats and rare species do not just grow back, and climate change doesn’t reverse itself, just because someone got sued for it later.

Dill Pickle will be running some similar event on a regular basis from now on. We’re interested in your ideas! This time around the beneficiary is a large national organization, but if there is a small local group you’d like to recommend, please do.

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Hoping to be a force for good in dark times

I’m horrified and appalled at the direction this election has taken. I apologize if that offends anyone, but I hope it doesn’t surprise you.
Part of me wants to hide under the covers and cry. But instead I’m going to take action. 
I want to start a regular charity benefit through Dill Pickle, aimed at the causes and the people that I believe will be the most adversely affected. At the top of my list are climate change and other environmental issues, and issues pertaining to discrimination and harassment against women, non-Christians, people of color, and immigrants. 
I don’t yet know what shape this will take, but I am thinking of making special items on some regular basis to auction or raffle off, and donate the proceeds. These may be large items or small, standard products or special one-off’s. Maybe sometimes it will be a bunch of small things instead of one big thing. It could also just be a voucher for the bag of your choice. I would love to hear your thoughts. 
I am also interested in your thoughts about people or organizations that have the most immediate impact on people’s lives or environmental causes. Is it better to donate to a large national organization, where the money is a drop in the bucket, or is it better to donate to a smaller, more localized effort where the same amount of money makes a bigger impact?
At present, I think I’ll rotate through a new organization on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, in order to help gain visibility for as many of them as possible.
So, please let me know your thoughts. I want to get something going very soon.

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