Tag Archives: liz royster

Who Runs the World? Girls!

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On October 19, 2016, Shred Love, along with 4 of our participants, attended the Women’s Sports Foundation – 37th Annual Salute to Women in Sports gala. 

Founded by Billie Jean King, the Women’s Sports Foundation has been breaking down barriers to grant more girls and women access to sports. Established in 1974, the Women’s Sports Foundation has been providing financial support to aspiring champion athletes, funding groundbreaking research, advocating and educating to not only get more girls and women active, but to create more leaders. 

The mission of the Women’s Sports Foundation truly resonates with me. There were many hurdles to overcome to start Shred Love and as we continue to grow and serve more youth from our communities, we face even more challenges. Running Shred Love on a tight budget, dealing with climate changes and burnout (working a full-time job, managing a family of 7, along with the responsibilities of Shred Love) can be overwhelming. It was a blessing to be a grant recipient of the foundation’s Sports 4 Life program. It was even more empowering to hear the stories of over 70 Olympic, Paralympic, champion and elite athletes – women athletes. The stories of struggle, perseverance, support and achievement were the greatest take away for our young ladies to bear witness to. 

As snowboarders, our girls are familiar with the level of commitment and dedication it takes to achieve greatness. Therefore it was no surprise to see Bria, Taralyn, Armani Rae and Alexis work the red carpet, navigate questions on life, snowboarding, and share their stories of triumph (both academically and physically). 

At the gala, Armani Rae had the opportunity to share her story on how snowboarding has changed her life. With her wit and charm, she managed to steal the show, if I must say so myself. Ok, I’m a little biased, but still, she killed it! 

Although the new year will have new challenges in store for us, I am inspired by our girls, Alexis, Armani Rae, Bria and Taralyn. Over the years I’ve had the chance to see each of them tackle a new skill in snowboarding, in addition to stepping up and becoming leaders within Shred Love. For that I’m grateful. 

Cheers! 

Shred Love Celebrates 5 Years of Service

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ShredLOve5yr

Join us in celebrating our fifth year of service, as we couldn’t have done it without you! I’m extremely proud of the progress we’ve made as a group and as individuals. Collectively we’ve worked together to expose inner city and at-risk youth to snowboarding, developed the leadership skills of all of our participants, and tackled some of the roughest terrain on our snowboards and mountain bikes. Yet individually, we’ve all faced some of our greatest fears and overcame many obstacles. I’ve had the pleasure to share in many of the triumphs of the group; seeing a newbie link turns at the end of a lesson, watching our older students become group leaders, and listening to the group’s stories on the bus ride home is a reward in itself.

I started Shred Love to give back to my community and yet my community has given so much more to me in return. I’ve learned a lot within the last 5 years about community, relationships, problem solving and myself. There were many times I wanted to quit because of funding and managing the business side of Shred Love, in addition to balancing my family, my day job; my life in general. Through each hurdle you, our supporters, created a way for Shred Love to not only continue, but to also grow.

May the next 5 years allow us to continue to grow and serve more deserving youth and create many more life long memories!

Cheers!

Liz

Thank you!

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ShredLoveThankYou

 

Thank you to all of our supporters that helped us receive the Dick’s Sporting Goods – Sports Matter grant! With your help, we received over $7600 to offset the cost of our 2014-2015 program. We are currently planning our upcoming season, so if you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Sports Matter

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Shred Love is now taking part of Dick’s Sporting Goods’ Sports Matter Crowdfunding Initiative. Our goal is to raise a total of $7000 to fund our upcoming season’s transportation cost and to replace some of our gear. In order to receive the full donation of $7000, we need to fundraise $3500 on our own. To date, we still need to raise an additional $3075. Please join us in this initiative and make a donation on our Sports Matter page and spread the word! If we don’t raise $3075 by Friday, May 23 6pm EST, we won’t receive any of the funds raised. Its truly a matter of all or nothing matter. So please consider making a donation and spreading the word to help us keep our Learn to Ride snowboard program free to its participants.

As always, thank you for supporting us! It is with your continued support we are able to serve more deserving youth through snowboarding.

Regards,

Liz

Ride with Us

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Shred Love 2014

 

 

Mother Nature has been really generous with the snow this year, so let’s hope she continues for our next outing on Sunday, March 2, 2014. In addition to snowboarding, we will be awarding all of our riders! So please, do you snow dance for one more coating of fresh powder and then I will personally join you all in the dance for spring. Pinky promise! 😉

Shred Love 2014 

Sunday, March 2, 2014 at Windham Mountain

Pickup/Drop-off Location: W33rd St & Broadway, Bayonne, NJ

Drop off – 6am

Return – 7pm

Students must bring lunch or buy lunch at the mountain. Text messages will be sent to all parents when we are an hour away from reaching Bayonne. Parents please be prompt! Also, all booster sheets can be returned then.

Thank you for being a part of Shred Love! It is with your continued dedication we are able to serve more deserving youth!

~ Liz

Learn to Ride 2014

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Our 2014 program kicked off on Sunday, January 26th at Windham Mountain. January is also the official Learn to Ride month and with a group of 37 youth participants, we did just that! The group is a mix of returning students and newbies, all with varying riding skills. This year, we also had a volunteer that was new to snowboarding. Our volunteer Matt, usually enjoys skiing, but took on the challenge of not only learning to snowboard, but to also chaperone a group of beginners. In addition, volunteer Shirley was also a newbie to snowboarding. It was interesting to see how the volunteers and the students would switch roles in motivating each other.

After every outing, we ask the group what they have learned new or discovered about themselves. Answers typically vary, but most feel that their biggest challenge of the day was continuing to try to snowboard after falling. Some cited they needed a pep talk to continue, others felt determined to get it, but all agreed, giving up wasn’t an option. Determination at its finest!

Believe Again 2013

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In honor of Throwback Thursday, #tbt, here are the photos from the Ciccone Theatre gala, which was held on Saturday, May 4, 2013. The Dance Theatre of Harlem performed and after their performance met with our group and answered some of our questions. Special thanks to Joyce Becker of Bergen Community College for making this a reality for us!

 

Woman of the Year

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Photo courtesy of Jersey Journal

Photo courtesy of Jersey Journal

On April 13th, our Founder and Executive Director, Elizabeth Royster had the honor of accepting the Woman of the Year award from Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated ~ Sigma Zeta Zeta. She was nominated by Revenna Fowlkes, parent of Edward. Edward has been a part of Shred Love since the beginning!

You can read more about that special evening in Liz’s own words here.