As a comprehensive school teacher, I ran the D of E at school for over 16 years. When we first started we had no camping equipment and no money to buy any. Some of the participants had their own tents, etc. or were in the position to buy them, but I became aware that many had no access to the camping equipment they would need, and were not able to afford it. At first I lent them my own equipment or borrowed from other students, but it became obvious that this was not a viable situation long-term. At this point, I was the Chairman of our local area for D of E, and having consulted with other leaders I discovered that this was a common problem. I decided to make a National Lottery application to fund a 'store' of equipment which could be hired out to participants from all the local schools. After much form-filling, and several expeditions to local 'Outdoors' shops to price the equipment, we obtained a grant for £10,000, which with helpful discounts from local firms, allowed us to purchase enough equipment for 15 students to go on expedition at the same time. I was then able to lend equipment out to any participants who had no equipment of their own. The equipment we purchased included waterproof jackets, trousers, gaiters, tents, rucsacs, trangias and various sizes of walking boots. Each student who borrowed equipment would pay a refundable deposit of £1 for each piece of equipment, and then on return the money would be refunded. Some parents, allowed us to keep the deposit which then helped to replace equipment, which either wore out or became damaged. We had a computerised library at my school which I was responsible for and each piece of equipment was 'tagged' with a barcode so that I knew to whom each piece of equipment had been allocated and when, and more importantly, when it was returned. The learning resource centre, where I worked, was often, during the summer, draped with drying tents and jackets after a wet weekend! The system ran for many years!