Our ranger aid story on day 26 of our World Ranger Day countdown is in itself a story about how the international ranger network is joining forces: It all started when an Icelandic national park wanted to donate its uniforms to international rangers in need of quality outdoor clothing. In the end, five rangers from four countries worked hand in hand to ensure that the uniforms could now be sent out.
This joint action of rangers cared about around 200 items of high quality ranger clothes in mint condition from Vatnajökull National Park. The clothing, mainly softshell, fleece and rain jackets, but also rain pants, pullovers and the like were sorted out by the National Park. This gave the management the idea of donating them to rangers from other countries who don’t have the financial means for quality uniforms.
5 Rangers from 4 countries, 200 outdoor garments, many logistical steps
Local ranger Linda Björk Halgrímsdóttir passed this idea on to the ERF, where project officer and Swedish ranger Adam Turner and administrative officer and ranger from Germany, Lars Scharfe, cooperated with Linda to organise the transfer of the uniforms from Iceland to Germany, from where the clothing can be distributed by land. But firstly, the good dozen boxes full of ranger uniforms had to make the 5-hour journey by car to Reykjavik before they could be shipped from there.
Julie Kermarec, ranger and volunteer coordinator at the Environment Agency of Iceland in Reykjavik, took care of this and skipped the items in. After a few days of negotiations with customs, a lot of bureaucracy and patience, Lars finally received and stored them in his attic – where they are now waiting for their new owners. Their dispatch will be possible thanks to a generous donation from Israeli entrepreneur Tomer Levy, whom ranger and ERF Vice President Ilan Yeger asked for support.
If you as a ranger are in need of this high-quality ranger clothing from Iceland, please get in touch with us for coordination: press@europeanrangers.org.
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