A key ingredient of that new experience is snowboarding.
Two years ago in Seattle, a kid who frequented a snowboard shop called the Snowboard Connection was killed in a drug-related shooting. The shop’s owner, John Logic, had, before this incident, been trying to get the local YMCA interested in combining snowboarding with education and counseling for exactly that kind of young person.
“I said, ‘This is what I’d been talking about,’” recalled Logic about his telephone call to Thomas Goldstein, then head of youth services at the YMCA. “There are kids who are on the edge of going this way or that way. Plus, I was tired of seeing snowboarding taking on the same face of skiing. I wanted to see a different face.”
Goldstein agreed that a program centered on snowboarding, but including community service such as planting flowers or painting rest homes, might help kids. Both men saw a need to have kids get away from their environment, explore the meaning of community and try to change their perceptions of life. And, snowboarding would be the carrot to attract them.
They named the program The Service Board and went out to get kids interested in it. “We went door to door in housing projects, asking if there were any kids who wanted to be involved,” said Logic.
But despite snowboarding’s current boom, it was difficult to get kids involved because in order to snowboard, they also had to commit to two evening meetings a week where they explored different issues, did exercises in role playing and wrote poetry, essays or music. The first year, however, 14 kids from 12 different high schools signed up.
Logic relishes showing kids a different world through snowboarding and also introducing them to different kinds of people with different points of view. “We had the chief of police come (who’s on the group’s advisory board) and discuss with them what it means to be poor in America,” Logic said. “We got another black cop to come with us up to the ski areas. It turned out he was very conservative and he got in arguments about conservative values with the kids all the way up. We thought it was great, we had conversations we wouldn’t normally have. He was telling them things they didn’t agree with, but he snowboards—we’re all just bros.”
Of course, the education didn’t end when they got up to a ski area. “Lou Lenihan is VP of operations at Snoqualmie Pass and she set us all up,” said Goldstein. “The kids were surprised to see a woman in a powerful position. They kind of assume guys run the show in a big, powerful, sports industry. Everyone’s preconceptions change.”
For her part, Lenihan said, it was very easy to sponsor this group. “What made the difference for us is that The Service Board really makes a difference in the kid’s lives. And, you couldn’t find a more enthusiastic bunch of kids.”
Chester Marler, marketing director of Stevens Pass, agrees. “We are always trying to do things with the Seattle community, especially the kids,” he said. “Being up in the mountains and learning something new is an exciting opportunity and we want to make sure as many kids as possible get this opportunity—that is why The Service Board appealed to us.”
Under a charter from the Center for Ethical Leadership (part of Seattle University), The Service Board receives donations of equipment and funds from snowboarding and local industry. “K2 gave us six boards, Gnu gave us six boards, Bonfire gave us clothing that the kids got to keep and the use of their cabin at Mount Hood,” said Goldstein. “And the areas give us lift tickets, and even meeting rooms.”
Even with this support, The Service Board met skeptics. “We were turned down by SIA for some of their grant money to teach people to snowboard and ski,” said Logic. “I think that’s because we’re not building consumers and that’s what they’re looking for. We were asked by one resort: ‘Are you sure these are minorities you’re bringing up?’ They wanted to make sure they were. It’s like they forget ski areas are on National Forest land and should be open to more than just those who can afford it.”
But did the program work? “There was a kid who was a junkie, living on the street,” said Logic. “After going through our program, he ended up with job at a bakery. There’s a Thai restaurant around the corner and the family was worried about their son so they got him in The Service Board. He did the program for a year, then came back the next year as a counselor. He paid off a board on layaway and wanted to come work at the Snowboard Connection. He came in and did everything he was asked, swept, cleaned up, arranged things. At the end of the day, we wanted to give him some T-shirts and he turned them down. He said, ‘When you volunteer, you’re not supposed to get anything in return.’
“There was a kid who’s been in the program for two years, saved up and bought a used board,” continued Logic. “He was super-stoked, super-proud. Our kids can rent a board for free. They would never snowboard themselves though they probably had friends who did. Now they can see themselves doing it.”
The success of their first year prompted Logic and Goldstein to continue the program. In the second year, The Service Board had 24 participants in the program and another 30 are enrolled this year. “In our first two years, a total of seven kids had some kind of interaction with the law. Not one has gone back [to crime],” said Logic. “We can still be crazy and be fun, just without breaking the law. The program has grown as fast as preconceived notions have changed and horizons have expanded.”
