RATC leader manages community-oriented enterprise: Outdrz.net
Many RATC members know Chris Means as RATC’s Membership Coordinator or as an early co-organizer of the Roanoke Outdoor Adventure Club. But there is a lot more to his story!
As Chris will soon be completing a long and successful career at Elizabeth Arden here in the Roanoke Valley, he’s already been thinking about the future. He still enjoys his work but admits that,
Undoubtedly I had the most fun in my working life at a skate/T-shirt shop in the booming metropolis of Charleston, West Virginia. I of course never made much money at this and eventually moved on, but the atmosphere was fun, my co-workers were incredible, and the job was essentially easy as love mingling with the public. I recall this as the ‘good times’ era in my life. Fast forward 30 years and I find myself entertaining the possibility of doing something similar, but with more thoughtful motivation.
The result is Outdrz.net, Chris’s web-driven effort (also found on Facebook) to combine four goals:
- Create and sell great quality products through his online shop.
- Get others addicted to the outdoors by any means possible. Vicariously will work, but my aim is to help others find the medicinal value I’ve stumbled onto out there, and if I’m really lucky, ignite a passion for conservation in a few individuals along the way.
- Generate enough income to keep this little venture solvent, and who knows, maybe even make a buck or two.
- Contribute a percentage of all profit funds to groups currently doing vital work out there conservation groups and other nonprofits.