We’ve seen about 1 and a half inches of rain in the past 6 hours here in Sacramento, and the storm just keeps on going. High winds, fallen trees, flooded streets….and a flooded prototype lab here at the office.
So what do the ingenious designers and sewers do when a problem such as this presents itself? Call the landlord? Nah. They try to figure out how to fix it themselves. Good thing we have lots of ’supplies’ in the lab.
Enter foam. The kind we use in our 3D harnesses and waistbelts. The kind that is closed-cell, so most importantly, the kind that will not let water pump into the lab under the poorly sealed back door. We’ve got a bunch of it here in the office for sewing prototypes and it worked perfectly in this instance as well. These guys never fail to amaze me with their smarts. Check out the photos. There were of course, a few rounds of testing before the perfect solution was reached…
Spotted around Sacramento…a few of the Gregory kids out on the town, dressed up the weekend BEFORE halloween. Guess they couldn’t wait to wear their sweet costumes.
Let me take this opportunity to introduce you all to some of the amazing and talented minds that we have working here:
Cheer Bear (pink care bear) is Robyn, she’s one of our Product Specialists
The Ref - that’s Katie, International Customer Service Specialist
Guy in the back left corner with the Redwood Creek hat on - that’s George, of Ask George blog fame
Guy on right with the umbrella mustache - Mark, one of our designers
Soccer Player - That’s Fabian, manufacturing engineer, he keeps it all together (I swear)
We don’t know the abercrombie and fitch kid, but the other 2 girls at the table get honorable mentions b/c they’re our friends. Steph is the other Care Bear and Julie is the german barmaid who was visiting from NY.
What are you all going to be for Halloween???? Send us pictures and have a good one!
This Saturday the Reel Rock film tour came to Sacramento Pipeworks and Gregory was on hand to donate raffle items and enjoy the films. If you haven’t seen this tour yet, check out their site for a location near you, it is worth it. There is a series of short films, including some winning submissions from a contest they held earlier this year, and the feature film ‘The Sharp End’ is intense and amazing.
Some lucky raffle winners left with recycled, one of a kind Gregory chalkbags which one of our sample sewers, Nick, made out of returned and reused Whitney packs. We also donated a Z35-R, a new Z35, and 2 products that we are currently only selling over in Japan–a messenger bag and daypack. Here’s what one of the sweepstakes tables looked like, it’s no wonder so many people bought extra raffle tickets with so many goodies to be had!
All of the money raised from the entrance fees and extra raffle tickets sold went to
C.R.A.G.S., our local Sacramento climbing advocacy group and affiliate of the Access Fund.
CRAGS is hosting the REEL Rock Film Tour on October 25th at Sacramento Pipeworks.
Doors open at 7 pm.
Admission is $10 and includes a raffle ticket and free beer/beverage. There will be a DJ on hand spinning reggae before and after the films (and who doesn’t like reggae).
Reel Rock will be premiering a new film, The Sharp End by Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen, and Sender Films. The film features Sacramento’s own Alex Honnold, Dean Potter, Mike Patz, Steph Davis, Tommy Caldwell, Jonny Copp, Lisa Rands, and many more as they risk everything on the world’s most dangerous and committing routes. Watch as they run out trad routes, boulder highballs, scale ice covered alpine walls, and commit to all or nothing free solo ascents.
Gregory will be supporting our local climbing organization CRAGS, by donating prizes for the raffle at this event. Come out to Pipeworks for some good movies, a good cause and good times. For a complete schedule of the Reel Rocks film tour, check out their website, http://www.reelrocktour.com/.
Recently here at our office, we began a new committee for community outreach and volunteering. Everyone has their favorite charities, organizations or causes to volunteer for and sponsor, and this group, named Gregory Gives Back, will take all employee nominated groups into consideration.
The first official activity the committee will be engaging in (and asking all of us to help with), is a canned food drive. We’ll have a bin here in the lobby of our office for collection and will be donating to one, or hopefully many, of the local shelters and food banks in Sacramento. With the holidays fast approaching, food pantries will be going through more stock than usual, and will need everyone’s help to boost their supplies. So if you’re in the Sacramento area, stop by the office November 1st - December 19th to drop off your canned goods, and if you’re not our neighbor, don’t feel left out! Visit www.feedingamerica.org or www.findfoodbank.com to find a drop off location near you.
Although we sometimes forget that cold weather exists while basking in the warm and sunny California weather, there are many people across the nation that need coats for the upcoming winter. In conjunction with News 10, our local news affiliate, we will be collecting new and gently worn coats for both children and adults to donate to our local Sacramento Coats for Kids chapter. We will have a bin for this in our lobby as well and will be accepting donations November 1st-December 17th. You can find out more about this organization, and where you can donate coats locally, at their website, http://www.coats-for-kids.org.
As the group meets more often, they’ll be coming up with more ideas, both local and national – maybe even worldwide), that Gregory wants to be a part of. We’ll keep sharing our choices with you to try and spread the love, and if any of you out there have a favorite organization that you think we should know about, send the recommendation our way. We’ll put it into the pool for our next meeting.
