Sport United States Project #10805

Mentoring 500 Alaskan Youth through Sports

by Wellspring Revival Ministries

Mentoring 500 Alaskan Youth through Sports

Project Report | Jun 27, 2013
Summer comes to Joel's Place

By James Menaker | Executive Director

The Land of the Midnight Sun has never been hotter. Winter was brutal, dipping to fifty five below and hanging on until the middle of May, but summer has roared back with a vengence. We have twenty two hours of sunlight each day without a cloud in the sky and temperatures that soar into the mid 90s. Most people are trying to stay home and stay cool, but Joel's Place is abuzz with activity at the moment.

Our summer food programs are handing out 50 meals a day while we weekly distribute bags of food to hundreds of kids with our Bone Builders Backpacks. We are hosting day camps for youth with developmental delays as well as week-long skate camps. We paved and fenced the parking lot, creating a volleyball court/basketball court/outdoor skating/community garden area that gives great outdoor options on beautiful days. Later this summer we are hosting an A.skate clinic for kids on the autism spectrum, putting on a booth at the fair and insulating our building to prepare for winter. It is a whirlwind of activity, all designed to turn Joel's Place into an optimum Youth Center for the young people of Interior Alaska.

There is great energy and excitement about Joel's Place right now. The community is rallying around us as we begin to turn our attention towards future goals: paying off our building and offering our services for no charge. We are built around providing safety, fun and development for youth and have no desire for a few bucks to come between our resources and our kids. It is a phenomenal time to be involved here and I am so grateful for all of you and the ways that you hold us up as we hold up our youth. My deepest and warmest thanks go out to you all.

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Apr 1, 2013
A Typical Friday

By James Menaker | Executive Director at Joel's Place

It is a typical Friday at Joel's Place Skate Park and Youth Center. Our Financial Manager arrives at 8 and begins reconciling account, answering phones and managing grant requirements. I arrive at 9 and check in before diving into cleaning and preparing. You see, we have a field trip coming over today. By 9:30 we have 20 helmeted second graders running up and down the ramps, ripping their pants when they slide and yelling like banshees. I lead the kids through skill stations, snack, free play and lunch with one of our other staff before they all head back to school, grudgingly, at 11:30. As they are leaving they all say thank you and I hear many iterations of "I wish we didn't have to leave," "That was the funnest field trip ever," and "Can I have my birthday party here?"

11:30-12:30 are spent cleaning up, readjusting helmet straps and answering the messages that came in while the field trip was around. The next hour and a half are used to answer e-mails, make connections and complete paperwork. 2:00 the Joel's Place staff and some Board Members meet together for a presentation on Autism in teens. We cover subjects like what Autism is, how it manifests in teenage boys, how to communicate and conflict de-escalation. As we talk, we realize that several of our members likely will fall onto the spectrum and we think through how to best serve them.

3:00 the doors open. The skate park is cleaned, the Red Room is ready and there is food available for the kids who are famished after school. The youth trickle in and then begin arriving in waves. Fridays we will generally have 40-60 kids come through our doors. There is skating and biking going on. Video games are going. The pool table, ping-pong table and foosball set are all constantly being used.

6pm is a busy time: Drum lessons start. A Pokemon tournament gets underway up in the conference room. A homemade dinner is served for free. Every room has someone doing something fun. Kelli, Jon, Leah, Darius, Rhema and Stokes make the rounds, ensuring that everyone is safe while a few volunteers help clean up dinner and talk with the kids. There are a couple of closed door conversations going on in the midst of the cacophany as our staff help a few kids work through recent crises.

9pm we close...kind of. From 9:09-10:10 we host 1080, a gathering of church youth groups and their friends to play dodgeball, eat and learn. It is a time full laughter and joy. The building finally empties out between 10:30 and 11 as the staff turn everything off and lock everything up. It has been 15 hours of energy and activity; the building, and staff, needs a rest before we start again on Saturday.

It is because of your generosity and support that all of this is able to happen. Thank you so much for everything that you do to help us invest in youth. This is a safe place full of fun and opportunity for dozens and dozens of young people every day. I feel blessed to work here and know that we are supported by such a great network of partners.

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Jan 8, 2013
A New Beginning

By James Menaker | Executive Director at Joel's Place

I enjoy beginnings. I like having a blank white board in front of me with the freedom to fill it in any way I see fit. I really enjoy entering a new year and being able to say, "What will we do with this?"

2012 was a year of change. Joel's Place has new ramps, new floors, a newly paved parking lot, new staff, new programs and many new partners. Change is always accompanied by transition and a learning curve. I want to extend a special "Thank You" to everyone who accompanied us through the growing pains of this past year. You have offered support, encouragement and resources to us as we navigated through our transitions. Without you, we would not have been able to remain open. At one point this past year, we were $40,000 behind on our financial responsibilities with little relief in sight. I am overjoyed to announce that we enter 2013 with no overdue bills, a little cash in the bank and our sights set on long-term financial goals. We were able to host Preston Pollard, a professional skater, here at Joel's Place over the New Year's Weekend, free of charge to the kids. He packed out our cafe, connected with the kids, oversaw a skating competition and infused a sense of energy and momentum into the building that had been lacking for a while.

2013 will build on that momentum. We are starting to utilize the facility more, bringing in school district classes for field trips, hosting UAF events and Parkour sessions, opening the outside rec area this spring and hosting camps, clinics and classes over the summer. Joel's Place will be buzzing with activity more than it ever has before.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us through the years. If you have questions about what is going on over here or ideas about someone to contact or something we can utilize the building for, feel free to get in touch with me at joelsplacealaska@gmail.com or 452-2621.

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