Imagine you’re a first responder. Your patient has just broken their leg and is wet, underdressed, and nearly hypothermic. If you don’t have any clothes to change them into, you may have to offer your own, or some purchased for the occasion. And if the injury is serious enough, those nice base layers might get cut right off, never to be used again.
That was the scenario that merino wool brand Minus 33 tackled head-on when it launched a program in 2017 to donate its factory seconds to a local search-and-rescue organization. The Search & Rescue (SAR) kit program repurposes “gently used” merino wool into patient-warming kits, which are distributed at no cost to SAR programs nationwide.
Now, Minus 33 wants your old wool to help fill a demand that’s grown dramatically over the last decade.
Minus 33 SAR Kit Donations: How It Works
Wool is a natural insulator that keeps the body warm, even when wet. Because of its reliability, outdoors folk have trusted it for millennia. But it isn’t cheap.
That’s where you come in. While wool garments last a very long time, they do eventually wear out. But in the case of an emergency, a small hole, frayed edge, stain, or tired elastic won’t make one iota of a difference. If the patient is wet and cold, they may need to be changed into warmer clothing before extraction.
Today, Minus33 distributes kits to over 200 partner organizations, including mountain rescue teams and state fish & wildlife agencies, so first responders can apply a full head-to-toe warming base-layer system to a patient during emergencies. The brand claims the program has processed and redeployed thousands of garments into these kits since its inception.
Until this year, the brand only donated its factory seconds and other cast-offs from its own inventory. But the program has become so popular that, this spring, it began asking for donations of wool layers from any brands. The old base layer that you were about to toss could be just the ticket.
“Every SAR kit gives us a better chance of bringing someone home alive,” said Jaime Bernard, president of Pemigewasset SAR from Franconia, N.H.
How to Donate
To participate, U.S. consumers may request a free shipping label to donate base layers containing at least 50% merino wool to Minus33’s facility in Ashland, N.H. Items are inspected, cleaned, and patched before being placed in an SAR Kit. Donors receive a 25% discount toward their next Minus33 purchase. Items with significant damage are recycled.
Visit Minus 33’s SAR kit program website for more information.
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