Shred Love Celebrates 5 Years of Service


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

Shred Love at Hunter Mountain


Hunter Mountain is hosting Shred Love every Saturday in March! First time snowboarders, ages 7- 16 are welcomed to join our Learn to Ride program at Hunter. Registration is open now!  Select “Shred Love” as the Youth Agency and enter “1992” as the session ID.

 We’re looking forward to meeting you new riders! Interested in volunteering for these sessions? Drop us a line.

 

 

 

The Hidden Valley Club host Shred Love & Anchor House


On Saturday, January 15th, The Hidden Valley Club welcomed Shred Love and Anchor House. Based in Trenton, New Jersey, Anchor House is a multi-service agency for runaway, homeless, abused, and at-risk youth and their families. Best known for being “family friendly” and the place, “where family memories last a lifetime”, The Hidden Valley Club made all of us feel welcomed. When we arrived at the Rental Shop, all of our gear was laid out and waiting for us.

Shanelle & Jerrie

Following the format of our 4 day Learn to Ride program, the Anchor House group attended their first lesson…

but  it didn’t take long for the magic to start.

No, your eyes aren’t fooling you, and yes Felix landed it! I was amazed by everyone, not just by their skills, but by their determination to get it. We’ve all heard stories of people being psyched about their first day of snowboarding, only to fall once and give up. But as in life, you can’t stop the first time your knocked on your “bum”, you have to dust yourself off and try again. That very lesson is the foundation of Shred Love.

For the 2010 – 2011 winter season, our focus will be on progression, goal setting, and developing creative problem solving skills. I know some may read “creative problem solving skills” and think, huh?! But if you really think about it, there is more than one way to skin a cat. And instead of accepting ‘no’ for an answer or taking the easy route, we’re planning to teach our participants how to find the best solution. I’ll stop there, because I could go on for days about setting goals, but I will leave you with this quote:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. – Buddha

Think big, and then think bigger!

Special thanks to The Hidden Valley Club and Marianne, our board member, Mel Young for suggesting we reach out to Anchor House, everyone at the Anchor House, Russ, & Amy, Phil, and Tom of the NJ Herald.

And finally, a big thanks to our volunteer Jerrie and our teen mentors: Khaliq, Marcel, and Shanelle for their dedication.

Shred Love & Anchor House at The Hidden Valley Club

An Epic Night for An Epic Cause


Our dinner at Soul Flavors on Wednesday, October 20th was a success! The sold event raised money for our 2011 programs and operations, enabling us to serve more youth. The packed house was filled with participants (new and returning) and their parents, volunteers, mentors, teen mentors, and supporters of Shred Love. So let’s start with our raffle winners:

Netta & our first winner, Monica

 

Mrs. Fowlkes with her winnings!

The only guy to win, Rob (he's also one of our new mentors!)

Dr. Coleman won a gift card to Soul Flavors

And since all of our young attendees walked away with gift bags, I’ll waste no time in sharing more pictures from the evening.

Our volunteer Darlene and her son, Adam... yeah he's a rider!

Our future Betties: Natalie & Monique

Our guests

 

Assemblyman Charles Mainor & our Founder, Liz

To see all of the pictures from the evening, check out our Facebook page and if you aren’t already a friend, don’t forget to send a friend request. ; ) 

Special thanks goes out to all of our guests, SOS Outreach, The Hidden Valley Club, Windham Mountain, Soul Flavors, Snowboard Addiction, Assemblyman Charles Mainor, The Jersey Journal, Bayonne Community News, Youngsworld, LLC, and Darlene Sarr. 

'Til next time!

Special Thanks!


Its the end of our program, so its time to say thanks to everyone that made this possible.

Our volunteer Jerrie

Thanks Joey!

Thanks Halimah aka Mrs. Shaun White! : )

Thank you Shanelle!

Thank you Sharlette!

Thank you Mel!

Thanks Geneva! (my mother and a big congratulations goes out to her for skiing for the first time on 2/20.)

Thanks Arnetta & Steve!Thanks Sharlette!

Thanks Bam!

Thanks Akitto!

Thanks Alycia!

Thank you Mr. Paul Alston of Alston Tours, Mr and Mrs Maple of It Takes a Village, SOS Outreach www.sosoutreach.org, Chase Courington from SOS Outreach, Windham Mountain www.windhammountain.com, Pamela Valure for the site, Kelly of Shred Betties www.shredbetties.com, Tim Ohle, Franz Krickl, Helene, Mike Hecht, Mike Barry, Steve Cody, Tracy Hunziker, Karen Vetere, Gina and Shana from Windham’s Guest services, Marie the supervisor of Windham Snowboard school, Brian Deka Paupaw, Pro Bono Legal Services, CIMA, Darrell Smith, Maine Gotti, all of our participants and their parents.  

2/28/2010: Our Season Finale


Sunday, 2/28/2010 was an epic day to say the least. Windham was covered in 5ft of fresh pow, our rider De’Karr turned 9, and our 09/10 program produced 30 (participants and volunteers) new shredders. It snowed the entire 3 hour ride there.

As usual Masai, Savion, and De’Karr sang Nick theme songs all the way there. Once we got there, it was business as usual.

Kyasia on the lift line

Dorian coming off the lift.

Isaiah

Masai

Shanelle

The Birthday Boy, De'Karr

Ms. Netta

6 year old Tyson coming down from the lift

 After a day of shredding, it was time to dig into some pizza.

Pizza Parrr- tay!!

L-R: Geneva, Liz, & Sharlette

L-R: Kevin, Zaakirah, & Tyson all smiles as usual

L-R: De'Karr, Masai, Khaliq, Isaiah, Edward, Xavier, Halimah, & Mel

L-R: Myriam and Kyasia

How's the pizza Armani Rae?

Jasmine

And finally some birthday cake.

Make a wish!

And finally, our award ceremony!

Congratulations Armani Rae!

Congratulations Jasmine!

Congratulations Kyasia!

Congratulations Zaakirah!

Congratulations Brandon!

Congratulations Edward!

Congratulations Isaiah!

Congratulations and Happy Birthday De'Karr!

Congratulations Kevin!

Congratulations Masai!

Congratulations Savion!

Congratulations Tyler!

Congratulations Tyson!

Congratulations Khaliq!

Congratulations Khaliq!

Congratulations Xavier!

 

Congratulations Dwayne!

 

Congratulations also goes out to Adam, Jamontay, Jacqueline, and Marcel (not pictured).

Day 3: Integrity, Wisdom, and Chairlifts


Shred Love

On Day 3, we focused on two core values: Integrity and Wisdom. On this day, more of our students and volunteers took their first ride on the chair lift.

Kevin, Zaakirah & Halimah

Liz, DeKarr, & Kyasia

While others ventured off to Whiteway Chairlift (length: 2,000’/vertical: 354′).

More photos from the day…

Kyasia, Zaakirah, and Kevin's first run on Willpower.

Shred Love

 Sunday, 2/28 will be the last day of our program for the 2009-2010 season. Please check back on Monday, 3/1. In the meantime, please make a donation to help keep our program alive and free to our participants.

Shred Love!

Day 2 at Windham Mountain


Armani Rae

Day 2 at Windham Mountain provided Shred Love with new challenges: Linking turns & Chairlifts. Our core value for the day was Discipline. Not to be confused with punishment, the discipline we are referring to is related to self discipline; finding the strength within to push on and achieve your goals. Usually people tend to quit when the roads gets rough, but not our group. As a group, everyone pushed on to perfect linking their turns and stopping.

Savion

Our volunteer Shanelle giving it a second try.

Xavier & Akitto

 Once it clicked, they were off. : )

Halimah

Isaiah

Tyson with a little assistance from Armani Rae

Mel’s group took their first ride on the chair lift to conquer K Lift Triple (length: 400′ and vertical 50′) with the help of Windham’s snowboard instructor Mike Hecht. 

L-R: Edward, Mel, Adam, Brandon, and Windham Instructor Mike Hecht

As usual, the day ended with smiles.

Jerrie

Armani Rae & Masai

and more smiles : )

To view more of our pictures, check us out on Facebook. Until next time.

Shred Love’s First Day at Windham Mountain 1/24/2010


11 volunteers, 24 students, 2 mini vans, 3 SUVs and 3 hours later, Shred Love attended its first learn to ride session at Windham Mountain.

L-R: Tyler, Tyesha, Arnetta, Jasmine, and Marcel

Our core value for the day was Courage. It took a lot of courage for both the students and the volunteers, as many were first timers as well, to try snowboarding. Despite the long trip, everyone was all smiles and amped to get on their boards.

L-R: Halimah, Jackie, DeKarr, and Issac

L-R: Halimah, Jackie, DeKarr, and Issac

 

L-R: Sharlette, Savion, Zaakirah, Isaiah, and Masai

 

L-R: Ahmaad, Akitto, & Tyson

 The instructors at Windham Mountain were very knowledgeable, understanding and patient, making the group’s first day on the slopes a success! Thanks Windham and SOS Outreach!