Partner Highlight: Kathryn Beals

Discovering the art of Kathryn Beals, Small Business Partner of Leave No Trace. [Submitted by Kathryn Beals.]

Background: I grew up in a small fishing town on the northwest coast of British Columbia. As a kid, my parents took me camping frequently and taught me to love the outdoors. I met my husband Travis ten years ago and we moved to California in 2003. We are both long time promoters of Leave No Trace ethics and have lead backpacking trips in the Sierras and Rockies. In 2008, we hiked the West Coast Trail of Vancouver Island and the high Sierra section of the PCT. The places we see on our treks provide the inspiration for my paintings.

What is your motto? I don't have a motto, but I always strive to communicate my love of the backcountry in my work. In my paintings, I try to balance the look of a favorite place with the feeling of being there. Tents are a focal point in many of my paintings because I want to give the viewer an emotional and symbolic connection to the landscape. As an artist specializing in commissioned paintings, I try to get a sense of the story behind each photograph so I can help people capture the memory of special places.

What does your company do for the environment? I select eco-friendly materials and methods in all aspects of my business. I paint with acrylic paints, which do not require the use of toxic solvents, as oil paints do. I use sustainable packaging materials whenever possible when shipping my paintings. My art cards are printed on 100% recycled paper with vegetable inks.

What does your company do for the community? I donate spare art supplies to local public schools, and I donate paintings and gift certificates to local animal shelters. I also run an art technique blog, howipaint.com, featuring some of my current paintings in progress with advice and instructional videos for beginners. I am a self-taught artist and I hope to inspire and encourage people of all ages to learn to paint.

Why does your company partner with Leave No Trace? (Why we love you.) It is a privilege to work with Leave No Trace, since I have long supported their approach to wilderness preservation through access and education. I donate 10% of profits from my card sales to Leave No Trace. I hope that my paintings can inspire people to visit the backcountry and have the experiences that have taught my me why Leave No Trace ethics are so important. Having grown up camping, my husband and I are glad to say that trails are cleaner now than we remember as kids. We believe that Leave No Trace is responsible for this improvement and we want to do our part to help.

To learn more about Kathryn Beals, you can visit any of her websites:
www.bealsstudios.com <http://www.bealsstudios.com>
Landscapes: www.kathrynbeals.com <http://www.kathrynbeals.com>
Art Blog: www.howipaint.com <http://www.howipaint.com>

To learn more about Small Business Partnerships, please visit us online: http://lnt.org/support/small_business.php

Partnership Highlight: Sauce for a Cause

Company: Sauce For A Cause (aka. SFAC)
Website: www.sauceforacause.com
Hometown: Boulder, CO
Motto: All Natural Gluten-Free Gourmet Sauce for an active Lifestyle!

Mission: “To simply create the best all-natural, gluten-free, gourmet sauces, while improving the well-being of the world around us."

Why Sauce For A Cause: Sauce For A Cause makes the best all natural, gluten-free, gourmet sauces. Our sauces include: Tangy Tangerine BBQ, Mango Mint, Not Your Traditional Ketchup, and Gourmet Mustard. Each of these sauces is a unique recipe created by the founder, Alex Mitchell.

Sauce For A Cause began in Boulder, CO in the kitchen of Alex Mitchell. He was just finishing up his degree in Art History and wondering what adventure was to come next. He always loved to experiment in the kitchen. He has especially loved making barbecue sauce ever since his grandfather taught him how to make it as a kid. (Since then no one has been able to stop Alex from putting barbecue sauce on almost everything he eats.) Upon graduating, he decided to perfect his barbecue sauce recipe. Experimenting in the kitchen led to other yummy sauces. After being put through more taste test sessions than they could imagine, Alex decided to take his family and friends seriously when they told him he was really on to something. That is when he decided to start bottling it. Being the paragliding, world traveling, ambitious person he is, Alex did not take presenting his sauce to the world lightly. Less than a year later, we are proud to present you with Sauce For A Cause.

What does Sauce For A Cause do for the environment? We strive to find the best packaging we can. The bottles are an innovative package that is eco-friendly, space saving, and great for taking anywhere you want them to go. The packages are more like a pouch, made from recycled materials and could be reused in all sorts of creative ways.

Not only is it important to us to bring you the best products, but also to make a true difference. That is why Sauce For A Cause donates fifty-percent of its proceeds to five carefully selected causes: Life Straw, Friends of the World Food Program, Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, Cancer and Flight for Life Colorado.

Sauce For A Cause & Leave No Trace: Sauce For A Cause Is honored to work with Leave No Trace. We are strong supporters and believe strongly in the program, and the partnership with the REI peak program. As a past instructor of the peak program and Leave No Trace, trainer Alex Mitchell is all about getting kids playing outside and away from video games. Everybody should know the 7 Principles of Leave No Trace!

Interested in learning more? Visit the Sauce For A Cause website, or join them on Facebook!

For more on Partnerships with Leave No Trace, visit our Partnership page or contact Sara@LNT.org.