Pacific Northwest Sheep Company Plays Integral Role Olympic Opening Ceremonies
I'm KayDee Gilkey with today's Open Range.?The 2014 Olympics will begin on February 6. When you see the USA team in the open ceremony's parade of nations, know their sweaters are all made in America by Ralph Lauren -- with wool from Oregon's Imperial Stock Ranch. This ranch was founded in 1871 and after more than 120 years of selling wool as a commodity, ranch owners Dan and Jeanne Carver began creating and selling premium yarns in 1999.
The story of how the 40 U.S. companies that all had a hand in the making of these Olympic garments is amazing, but we are going to focus on Imperial Stock Ranch's portion of that story. Jeanne Carver shares their philosophy
Carver: "The greatest story we tell, share and our greatest role here is to steward the land and animals and the interconnected relationships. It all begins with soil, water, sunlight, grasses and grazing animals. That's our primary job -- that's our life. The wool is a harvested form of sunlight. Then transforming that into yarn and on into apparel is something we've been doing for a long, long time."
Carvers will not be attending the open ceremonies as it is lambing season at the ranch, but Jeanne says
Carver: "We will, of course, look forward to watching our tremendous U.S. team and watching the opening ceremonies."