HYDRO FLASK, award-winning leader in high-performance, insulated stainless steel flasks and soft good innovations and a Helen of Troy brand, grows its PARKS FOR ALL giving programme with 20 grantees for 2023. This year, the brand will provide over $518,500 (£429,000) in funding to regional, national and international grantees raising the programme’s total lifetime contributions to over $3m (£2.48m).
Since Parks For All’s inception in 2017, the programme has supported more than 200 non-profit organisations. Grantees have achieved incredible results, including hosting over 770 workshops and training courses, removing more than 33,000kgs of rubbish from parks and waterways plus other community initiatives that have engaged more than 113,000 people, allowing them to enjoy green spaces and time outside.
Collectively, Parks For All grantees have spent the equivalent of 65 years’ worth of time outside (more than 574,000 hours). This year’s Parks For All projects will expand efforts around new park development, park maintenance and restoration, equitable park access and single-use plastic reduction, a new programme category.
“This is our sixth year of giving through Parks For All, and it has been incredible to see the programme grow in both size and impact,” said Indigo Teiwes, Director of Corporate Responsibility, Home & Outdoor segment at Helen of Troy.
“From providing funding for a new urban pocket park in Philadelphia to engaging Blackfeet tribal members in land stewardship projects in and around Glacier National Park and the ancestral lands of the Amskapi Piikani people, our mission to create happier and healthier outdoor experiences for everyone becomes more of a reality each year with the amazing work done by these incredible nonprofit grantees.”
Teiwes also highlighted the expansion of the funding to support organisations dedicated to the elimination of single-use plastics adding, “Hydro Flask’s Refill For Good giving programme is our rally cry to make good choices for good reasons around reusable products. Integrating this aspect of our brand into our grant cycle is one more step toward our goal to help eliminate single-use plastics.”
In Europe, three organisations will receive grants:
CLEAN RIVER PROJECT will host river clean-ups with a $25,000 (£20,699) Parks For All grant. Participants in six cities across Germany will paddle in kayaks while clearing plastic and other debris from rivers. A travelling art project will be built out of collected trash to raise awareness around reducing single-use plastics.
PROTECT OUR WINTERS AUSTRIA ‘Hot Planet, Cool Athletes’ programme engages kids in outdoor winter sports while teaching strategies to reduce climate change. For its first ever Austria-based project, a $10,000 (£8,279) Parks For All grant will launch a workshop geared specifically toward students from migrant families that will culminate in a fun glacier skiing trip.
WE SWIM WILD connects people to cold water swimming and environmental stewardship projects. A $13,500 (£11,177) Parks For All grant will help train a volunteer clean-up leader for each of the U.K.’s 15 National Parks. The leaders will then lead river and beach clean-ups as well as hold single-use plastic awareness events. The project will culminate in a video release and a report about the microplastics found in the parks.
