Vern Jones was standing triumphantly at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro with his family, wishing he could buy a T-shirt or some other kind of gear to mark the accomplishment. That was hard to come by in Tanzania, Africa, where the mountain resides, so he decided to make a clothing line himself. One wrinkle, though: he wanted to give back to the guides and porters who helped him up the mountain, many of whom make less than $10 per hour and scale the mountain in simple tennis shoes as opposed to the expensive hiking boots many climbers buy.
The result was Kili Summit Club, a place where people can not only share pictures and stories of their climb, but buy merchandise whose proceeds go in large part to porters and guides. It was a simple idea that makes a huge difference for people whose dangerous jobs go mostly unnoticed.
Story by Victor Beigelman, APlus.com
