east valley
Volume 1 Issue 23 Mesa, AZ
January 13, 2019
Mesa outdoors shop owners aim to keep Mother Earth clean Tribune News Staff
W
IN THE BIZ
hen you sell apparel that champions the environment, it only serves to reason that you help Mother Nature keep it clean. And that’s why Sean Huntington and Cameron Jarman, two local residents who own Keep Nature Wild at 21 W. Main St., downtown Mesa, are launching “Wild Keepers” – a movement to keep parks, trails and even sidewalks clean of trash that they are formally launching Tuesday, Jan. 15. They’re asking everyone to sign up as a Wild Keeper at keepnaturewild.com/ pages/the-wild-keepers, pick up trash and then log its weight on their website with a goal of removing 175,000 pounds of trash this year and one million pounds by 2023. They have hosted over 25 formal cleanups since 2016 and have 18 scheduled for this year, although the business partners are hoping other Wild Keepers will organize others on their own. Keep Nature Wild sells apparel, stickers, and outdoor accessories, using their Mesa warehouse to fulfill online orders and prep their wares for sale in more than a dozen shops across the West. Jarman, a former teacher, and Huntington founded the business in 2016, setting strict standards for the kinds of wholesalers they partner with so they can guarantee they’re selling “responsible products” – goods “produced under lawful, humane and ethical conditions.” “As a former high school teacher and
photographer, Sean and I have been fortunate enough to use our time off to adventure the Southwest,” said Jarman, adding they “developed an overwhelming sense of pride and love for our community and our state.” That love affair led them to “to feel an obligation to do more to protect our lands and to give back to the areas that we had been freely enjoying.” And so Keep Nature Wild was born. “The Southwest landscape is awesome and because it is so awesome it attracts millions of people every year to enjoy its beauty and grandeur. Due to a plethera of (Special to the Tribune) problems, many states are Mesa business partners Sean Huntington, left, and Cameron limited in both funds and re- Jarman of Keep Nature Wild are part of a national movement sources to keep up with the to clean up America’s parks increasing demand for naused to restore, maintain and preserve ture. This places a heavy burden on our our wild places.” wild places and however infinite and inThey’re also promoting volunteerism and destructible they may seem, they need to “responsible outdoor recreation” by encourbe nurtured and cared for,” Jarman states aging formal as well as informal clean-ups. on his website. Added a company spokeswoman: “Sean The problem has become particularly and Cameron are on the ground getting severe lately as a result of the federal gov- their hands dirty alongside their volunteers ernment shutdown, which has left many at nearly every cleanup. They love being innational parks in disarray. volved and making an impact, in fact most “We sell awesome products and take of their company is at every cleanup as well, the funds we generate to impact local volunteering their time. It is very much at wild places,” Jarman said. “A portion of the core of their company culture.” every purchase you make on our site is Information: keepnaturewild.com. (USPS 004-616) is published weekly
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