SHERPA ADVENTURE GEAR SPONSORS 2015 RESTORE VISION EXPEDITION

"Sherpa Adventure Gear announcement"...

Media Contacts:
Sherpa Adventure Gear
Boo Turner, Footloose Communications
boo@footloose-communications.com or 206.554.1596

2015 Restore Vision Expedition
Jeff Blumenfeld, Blumenfeld and Associates PR
jeff@blumenfeldpr.com or 203.655.1600

Sherpa Adventure Gear Sponsors 2015 Restore Vision Expedition
Dooley Intermed International medical team heads to Nepal May 1-10th to
provide eye care to villagers in remote Gorkha region

Sherpa Adventure Gear will supply 24-person team with functional, weather-ready outdoor apparel

KENT, WASHINGTON, USA and KATHMANDU, NEPAL—April 7, 2015—Sherpa Adventure Gear is pleased to announce that it is a sponsor of the 2015 Restore Vision Expedition team that will provide free eye care from May 1-10, 2015 in the remote Upper Gorkha region of Nepal.   The 24-person medical expedition—a project of Dooley Intermed International—expects to serve over 1,500 villagers with eye screening examinations, eyeglasses and sight-restoring surgeries in the impoverished and isolated area.  Sherpa Adventure Gear will outfit the team with functional outdoor clothing that is also practical for the job at hand, with numerous pockets for supplies and instruments used in the free-of-cost eye clinics. The expedition and its successes can be followed on Dooley Intermed International’s Twitter feed and Facebook, as well as at http://www.dooleyintermed.blogspot.com/.

“We are absolutely honored to support this important work in Nepal again,” said Tashi Sherpa, founder and president of Sherpa Adventure Gear.  “We look forward to welcoming the team in Kathmandu and giving them a send off that recognizes the value of their mission of sight.”

Scott Hamilton, President of Dooley Intermed, is leading the expedition.  Since 1993, Hamilton has traveled to Nepal over a dozen times, organizing research, humanitarian and eye care outreach, including the 2013 Mustang Gift of Sight Expedition, which Sherpa Adventure Gear also sponsored.  A short documentary film by Skyship Films, which can be viewed on dooleyintermed.org, chronicled that expedition, which helped about 700 villagers with basic eye exams, vision correction, and sight-restoring cataract surgeries.

Hamilton says there is a huge demand for eye care in Nepal, especially in hard to reach areas. In a March 2014 article in Stamford (Connecticut) magazine about the 2013 Gift of Sight Expedition, Hamilton said, "I never set out to be a humanitarian but when you go to these places and see a need that's enormous, and you know that you can do something about it...a light comes on."  When the 2015 Restore Vision Expedition heads out for the distant Upper Gorkha region, it will use mule caravans to transport all the equipment and supplies required to establish its two temporary eye care clinics.

According to Hamilton, an estimated 80% of blindness in Nepal is avoidable or curable.  A leading cause of blindness is due to cataracts, which can be surgically repaired.  There are also many young and old that suffer from easily corrected vision problems that are not costly:  just $100 provides prescription eyeglasses to ten patients and $25 provides a single eye cataract surgery and lens implant, according to the Dooley Intermed International website. Donations can be made at http://www.dooleyintermed.org/.

Sherpa Adventure Gear will outfit the expedition’s eye surgeons and technicians from ISMS-Operation Restore Vision and the Himalaya Eye Hospital, as well as volunteers from the Pema Ts’al Sakya Monastic Institute that serve patients as eye camp assistants, ambassadors and interpreters.

For more information on 2015 Restore Vision Expedition, contact Scott Hamilton at Hamilton@dooleyintermed.org.

About Sherpa Adventure Gear
In the highest reaches of the Himalayas, the Sherpa people lead the world in mountaineering with warmth, grace and good humour. Tashi Sherpa—upon discovering that his uncle was on Sir Edmund Hilary’s celebrated 1953 expedition to the summit of Everest—founded Sherpa Adventure Gear in 2003 in this spirit, to honour his people by creating the best quality outdoor apparel made in Nepal. The company employs hundreds in Kathmandu and Nepal at its headquarters, stores and manufacturing operations. Marketing and North American sales and distribution is based in Kent, Washington. A portion of every sale benefits the education of Sherpa children through the Paldorje Education Fund, an IRS 501(c)(3) charitable arm the company established in May 2012. For more information, visit http://www.sherpaadventuregear.com.

About Dooley Intermed International
Dooley Intermed International  (www.dooleyintermed.org) is a New York-based not-for-profit dedicated to providing crucial assistance to those who lie beyond the reach of traditional healthcare. It has been aiding the people of Nepal for 50 years. It is a non-profit, non-governmental, non-sectarian, non-political, private voluntary organization receiving its financial support entirely from private contributions.