Joel's Place: Live and Unplugged: December 2014

Friday, December 12, 2014

Snowskating!!!

     Hey...guess what we're doing on Saturday? We get to officially open our outdoor snowpark! Joel's Place offers a lot of great indoor options during the winter: skateboarding, BMX biking, scootering, concerts, free food, games, art, crafts and more. It does a lot for our kids to be able to run and play during the long, cold winter months. But there is something that Alaskan youth are missing if they are always indoors during the winter. We are built for the cold and the snow. This state tests the limits of what the human spirit can accomplish and that is the exact mentality of our members. We now have winter outdoor recreation options and I could not be more excited about the prospect. We will have ramps and rails that our kids can ride their snowboards or snowskates or sleds down...whooping and hollering all the way.

     Wait. What's that? You have never heard of snowskating? You've heard of snowboarding and iceskating and skateboarding...but never snowskating? Well consider yourselves planted onto the cutting edge of winter sports youth popular culture. Imagine skateboarding on the snow...with no wheels...but without your feet strapped onto the deck like snowboarding. Imagine the jumps and spins and grinds and flips of a skatepark...only covered in ice and snow. The feel of a snowboard but with the control of a skateboard. This is snowskating...now available at Joel's Place. Where can you find a snowskate to purchase for this amazing activity, you ask? Snowskates now available at the Joel's Place Ride Shop.

     We have a number of community supporters who have come alongside us to make this park happen. Dan Cook and Josh Poe from Gripall have spearheaded the entire project, carving out hours from their schedules to help plan and build the park while putting this event on. We are really grateful for those guys and eager to see how this new option changes Joel's Place.

     Feel free to swing by on Saturday the 13th between 4-8pm to see the new area...It will be the fenced in spot with music and food and a bonfire and a steady stream of whooping teens flying down the snow-covered ramps. Hope to see you there.

Friday, December 5, 2014

The Joel's Place Staff


From Left: Arlys, Sarah, Jacque, Tami, (Kneeling: Spencer and Jay), Leah, James, Colton, Johhny, Mark, and Kelli

These amazing people that you see up here are the staff members at Joel's Place. We are actually never in the same place at the same time so it was a minor miracle to be able to gather us all for a picture at Ramp It Up. We all have different backgrounds and abilities and there are different things that have drawn us to working at Joel's Place...but I am proud to call each one of them Joel's Place staff because they work really, really hard to make our Youth Center an amazing place for every single teen who comes through our doors. The staff are a combination of quiet and loud, short and tall, athletic and...not, musical and...not, artistic and detail-oriented. But they are all devoted to their faith and seeing the lives of the kids at Joel's Place transformed for the better. I am honored to work with them all.

Joel's Place is not always the easiest place to work. There is a lot of drama that our members bring in with them. There are cash-flow crunches. There are things that break and take a while to get fixed. These are part of depending on charitable giving and volunteers. The pay is...better than minimum wage. Everyone is here because they believe in the mission and want to make the world a better place by investing in these kids. When problems arise the staff are good-natured and flexible, working to help solve the problem instead of becoming disgruntled and lashing out.

Over the next few months I would like to share some of the stories of our staff: where they came from, what brought them to Joel's Place and why they stay. I am fascinated by these people and think your life will be better if you get to know them.

Thank you for your support and encouragement. From all the staff here at Joel's Place:

Have a Joyful and Blessed Christmas Season!

Giving

If you would like to become a financial partner with us and support the work of Joel's Place, here's how:

1.) To make an online donation:

2.)Mail us a check at P.O. Box 83584, Fairbanks, AK 99708

Or

3.)Call our front desk at 452-2621 with your credit card information. Our official hours are Mon- Fri, 12pm-6pm , but there is usually someone by the phones from 8am on.

And

4.) You can link your Fred Meyer Rewards card to Joel's Place at this link. Every purchase on your card increases the Fred Meyer Foundation's annual donations to our organization.

Thank you for your encouragement and support.

From the Staff

Leah Byam, Program Assistant

On Sunday after Church a group of us went to Subway to eat lunch. When we get in line it's very busy, so we wait patiently in line. As I'm waiting in line I see CS, a young man who has been coming to Joel's Place for a very long time. He's working behind the counter. He's assertive, polite, taking peoples orders, and going on to the next costumer giving them kindness and the same professional service. As I watch him from afar my eye's tear up. I know his past. I've walked with him on so many journeys. I love this kid so much, I am so so so proud of him. As I get closer he see's me and his face lights up. We were able to talk. He tells me that he just graduated with his high school degree, that he's still saving up, he will be going to Hawaii as planned in September to work. I was able to tell him, How proud I am of Him, and I meant it in every sense of the word.