Land Rover announced the winners of the Defender Service Awards, and five non-profits in the United States and Canada will take home a new Defender 130 and $25,000 to further their cause as a result of winning.
Land Rover announced the winners of the Defender Service Awards, and five non-profits in the United States and Canada will take home a new Defender 130 and $25,000 to further their cause as a result of winning.
The winners were announced at a special banquet held during Destination Defender, Land Rover's celebration of the Defender lifestyle in Saugerties, New York. Defender 130s were awarded in five categories: Environmental and Conservation, Search and Rescue, Veterans Outreach, Animal Welfare, and Community Service.
The winners are:
Pelican Search and Rescue Award: Sauvetage Bénévole Outaouais - Ottawa Volunteer Search and Rescue (Ottawa, ON)
Founded in 1996, SBO-OVSAR serves as a search and rescue organization benefitting Western Quebec and Eastern Ontario. Though their name includes the major capital city of Ottawa, their territory includes large, rugged areas of land and water, including the Ottawa River and its tributaries, where many people get lost and injured in the pursuit of sport every year. The Defender 130 will serve them well as a Search and Rescue vehicle, especially on the hundreds of kilometers of backcountry trails that attract motorsports enthusiasts to the Ottawa Valley.
dentsu x Veterans Outreach Award: Patriot Service Dogs (Marion County, FL)
Patriot Service Dogs provides honorably discharged veterans with a physical or mental disability with a service dog to provide them with companionship and guidance. With a large pool of veterans in need after twenty years of a large-scale war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defender 130 will serve a vital transportation and outreach role to help them further their goals of helping vets gain independence in the wake of conflict and trauma. They often have 15-20 dogs in training at any time, and the Defender 130's large rear cargo area is perfect for carrying these dogs to appointments, training, and their new homes.
KONG Animal Welfare Award: Appalachian Bear Rescue (Townsend, TN)
Appalachian Bear Rescue (ABR) cares for orphaned and injured black bear cubs in Tennessee's rugged Appalachian Mountains. There is no better vehicle than a Land Rover here to help them get into the backcountry to tend to these incredible creatures. The Defender 130 has the space to carry their supplies, the capabilities to get them to remote and rugged areas to tend to injured bears, and the new-car reliability to do it all comfortably.
ei3 Community Services Award: Mercy Chefs (Portsmouth, VA)
Mercy Chefs provides professionally-prepared, restaurant-quality meals to people suffering in the wake of natural disasters and national emergencies, as well as fueling the first responders who come to help them. They also work to help feed people in underserviced areas around the country. Since its founding, Mercy Chefs has served over 20 million meals in 150 disasters, 29 states, and 12 countries. The Defender 130 is the perfect vehicle for their mission -- tough enough to handle a disaster zone, big enough to haul supplies around.
OUTSIDE Interactive, Inc. Environmental and Conservation Award: Green Lake Association (Green Lake, WI)
The Green Lake Association safeguards the deepest natural inland lake in Wisconsin, and models an approach to create other cleaner lakes in the Lake Michigan basin. They work to improve the water quality of the lake, increase the population of native species, and protect the overall environment of the lake area. They are setting new standards for lake organizations as they look to tackle the environmental crises of our time. The Defender 130 will help them continue their work, and their new vehicle will likely do many circuits of the 27-mile shoreline keeping an eye on the water and species in the lake.
After two years of the Defender Service Awards, with a dozen non-profits across North America now using the Defender in a hard-working role, and high-level corporate sponsorship, we can only hope that this becomes an annual tradition at Land Rover. It's become one of the most life-changing charitable projects to come out of the automotive industry.
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