For years, one dedicated steward in Chelsea, MI gained permission from her large, industrial employer to take possession of all the lightly-used working gloves that factory standards had marked for disposal. The company (too modest to be named here) was supportive, but the volume quickly overwhelmed. That’s when The Stewardship Network got involved, picking up these extremely useful gloves, having them cleaned, sorting them into matching pairs, and getting them into the hands of nature’s many caretakers in across the Great Lakes area. Today, gloves repurposed in this program’s earliest days are still put to use in service of a wide range of collaborative stewardship actions and we’re just warming up.
Already, TSN Gloves for Good has diverted over 5,000 pairs of gloves from landfills, avoiding hundreds of pounds of waste and saving our recipients thousands of dollars better spent in other ways.
If you or your organization actively care for the land and water where you live and would benefit from a gift of these gloves, we’d be honored to assist. Local pickups (near Ann Arbor, MI) are available for free, or we can arrange to ship them if you can cover those costs (within the continental US). To start the process, just use the button at the top of this page or click here.
Details: Gtek gloves (small, medium, large, and extra large) & cotton gloves (medium/large) similar to the images above
“When we invite volunteers to join us for workdays throughout the year, it is so wonderful to be able to offer them all clean, comfortable gloves that fit well. Like most conservancies, we have old work gloves that we’ve offered volunteers in the past, but they are either worn to pieces, or only fit large hands. Being able to supply everyone with gloves that fit shows that we value all of our volunteers. We are able to host tree planting, garlic mustard pulling, and trail maintenance workdays with large groups and we never run out of gloves thanks to The Stewardship Network!”
Amy Lipson, Conservation Specialist
If you have photos or stories of these gloves in action, we’d love to see them and hear all about it at gloves@stewardshipnetwork.org
Program Partners
Like so many great superheroes, the good people supplying these gloves prefer their secret identity. We thank them sincerely for powering this effort and their willingness to engage creatively for the betterment of our natural world.
Cleaning services provided by Ann Arbor’s famous Mr. Stadium Laundromat. We thank them for restoring these valuable gloves to ready-to-work status and appreciate their ongoing support.
Our friends at ECN have generously offered to help us distribute gloves across the Detroit area and we sincerely appreciate it.
Special thanks to our longtime allies at Mike Appel Environmental Design for transporting our gloves to and from the cleaners.
The team at the Saline, MI Allegra office has helped us with numerous projects over the years. For this initiative, they generously provide the boxes we use for organization / shipping.
