Co-Founder & Chairman, Zumiez
Search every verified Thomas Campion interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Tom Campion, co-founder and chairman of Zumiez and a board member of the Alaska Wilderness League, spoke at the AWL Voice of the Wild event in 2018 about his advocacy for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He described the reliance of Indigenous communities on caribou hunting for food security and criticized proposals to allow oil drilling in the region. Campion said that "the majority of their food security in the protein comes from hunting caribou" and that "we're going to change us so we can export some well - we're trying to Saudi Arabia right you know, there this week it's insane." Campion noted that former President Jimmy Carter was a founding board member of the league and that former President Barack Obama "was a champion of protecting this place and couldn't get it done with our Congress." He called for continued pressure on elected officials and support for legal and activist efforts, stating that "the fight kind of just beginning and it's for all of us." Campion also referenced a couple who wrote to President Richard Nixon in 1969 about the refuge, saying "over all these years is why you win."
“The majority of their food security in the protein comes from hunting caribou when they migrate up to the coastal plain of the Arctic spring and come back in fall. Now imagine, and they don't, you know, and you fly into these villages there's no roads; you hunt and that's how you provide your food and that's how the fo...”
“We're going to change us so we can export some well - we're trying to Saudi Arabia right you know, there this week it's insane.”
“One of our founding board members Jimmy Carter was a passionate Alaska conservationist so it's serious times but it's also maturity times.”
“President Obama was a champion of protecting this place and couldn't get it done with our Congress so the fight kinda is just beginning and what we were created for the whole Congress economy is more important than ever.”
“Last time this Republican Congress had this idea it was the fund that Iraq war now it's going to go for tax cuts and really don't go for tax cuts but go to Alaskans so the fight kind of just beginning and it's for all of us.”
“Thank Maria and keep pressure on all of our electives and elect people want to protect the heritage of the public lands like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
“Give your support it's going to go to the legal, it's going to go to get more activists back, get the Winching back talking to leaders going in interior say can't do this this is wrong this is going to destroy us as the people from the standpoint of food security.”
Tom Campion, founder and chairman of the retail chain, Zumiez, and Alaska Wilderness League board member, speaks at the ...
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