The creation of Planet Access Company (PAC) and Search for Adventure (SFA) is at the top of our list of things that make me proud to be associated with this company. These two organizations, created in partnership between Horny Toad and Search Developmental Center (a not-for-profit in Chicago), have changed the lives of a great many adults with developmental disabilities and touched each of the Toads that work here.

When we started Horny Toad, we knew we wanted to make a difference in the world beyond making clothes. It was in 1997, our second year of business, that I met John Lipscomb, then CFO and now Executive Director of Search Developmental Center. Search had a 30-year track record working with adults with developmental disabilities. They provide life-skills training, beautiful group homes in good neighborhoods and most importantly, the chance for their members to participate fully in society and their community. John’s goal for his clients is a dignified and fulfilling life.

In a “we can change the world” moment, we mutually committed to our second jobs for life - to create a partnership that brought deeper meaning to our first jobs. We spent the better part of a year brainstorming and experimenting with ways to combine our organizations to create what we called the Planet Access project. Its mission was (and is) to:

1. provide training and meaningful work opportunities for Search members
2. generate awareness of the talents and potential of the overlooked and underestimated developmental disability population
3. create a model example for corporate social responsibility
4. create funds to build an adventure travel program for members of Search

In hindsight this has turned out to be one of those beautiful relationships that just worked, but as we sat there trying to come up with a grand vision, it was not so obvious. Then one day, John came to me with the solution. He proposed relieving my brother and me of our packaging and shipping duties, which we were doing from the back room of our office. We needed help and they wanted to provide it.

A decade later our Search warehouse team, now known as Planet Access Company or PAC, has shipped millions of Horny Toad items with unmatched reliability and enthusiasm. Currently more than 120 individuals with disabilities participate in the program and I can’t begin to explain the feeling I experience visiting the smiles that go with it.

The icing on cake has been the realization of Search for Adventure (SFA), our adventure travel program. Funded by PAC proceeds and a grant from Horny Toad, SFA sends our friends at Search on real vacations to get a taste of outdoor adventure. Last year SFA took 59 people with developmental disabilities on 11 separate trips including the Appalachian Trail, New York, the Boundary Waters, a cruise to the Bahamas and Powderhorn Dude Ranch. This year, we have 12 trips planned and the real kicker is that Toad employees get to join the trips as volunteers. I even got to go on the Appalachian Trail trip this past June. As you can imagine, the experience is transforming.

We now have a more important responsibility to stay around for a long time and I look forward to sharing our continued adventures with Search, PAC and SFA in the coming years.

Thanks for reading,

Gordon

www.planetaccesscompany.com

The choices we make are as important as the clothes we create. We try each day to lighten our environmental footprint, be good partners in all of our relationships, pay attention and stay active in our communities and support organizations that improve our world - the source of our daily adventures.