Shredfest 2007 - Wasilla, Alaska

Here's the final video from last winter's Shredfest demo in Wasilla, AK. The demo is put together every year by Snowdays Alaska coordinator Jason Moore. Students who have met their reading goals for the quarter are rewarded with this amazing show.

Riding in the demo are Snowdays AK volunteers Matt Wild and Travis Reid, Snowdays founder Travis Parker, Jason Borgstede and "token skier" Logan Imlach.

Planning has already started for the next Shredfest which will take place in March 2008. Enjoy the video.

Dec 2007 - Fundraising Success

Snowdays is getting bigger and better every year. As we grow, we need to expand our fundraising goals to meet our operating budget for Portland and Alaska. We also need to purchase our own van in Portland in order to reach more students.

Our goal is to raise $20,000 this winter, and thanks to several generous donations we are already well on our way towards that goal.

We have received $5,000 from the WHH Foundation and the same amount from the Wurster Family Foundation. Exeter Counselling Center in New Hampshire donated $250, as did the Corrado Charitable Foundation. GI Joe's Foundation in Portland donated $2,500.

Adding these donations to the $1,500 we raised at the Ski Expo, we have received $14,500 so far, putting us well within reach of our $20,000 goal. We are very grateful to our donors and will ensure that all donated funds are used wisely.

Finally, huge props to Holden. For the last two seasons, they have passed all their outerwear samples to us. We just received another huge shipment.... thanks for all your support guys!

Portland Ski Expo

Snowdays was a great hit once again at the Portland Ski Expo. Our spin-to-win prize wheel was back by popular demand, and it barely stopped spinning during the entire three days..

Thanks to a very generous donation from Novakane, we were also able to raffle off a complete snowboard setup. Between the prize wheel, the raffle, and T-shirts sales, we raised almost $1,500.

The Expo is also a great place for us to raise awareness of Snowdays and what we do. We made contact with 10 new volunteers and ran an introductory meeting for those folk last week.

July 2007, End of Season Report

It's been another banner year for Snowdays. During the last winter we had a record eleven day trips, reaching almost 200 deserving students. We established a new Snowdays branch in Alaska and added snowshoe hike days to our Portland program. Our fundraising efforts for next season have already been quite successful, and will allow us to offer an even better program in January.

In Portland we ran nine day trips. We continued to work with our existing partners Self-Enhancement Inc (SEI) and Trillium Charter School. We were also able to offer snowboarding trips to students from two new organizations, Hacienda CDC and the "I Have a Dream" Foundation of Oregon.

At the request of SEI, we added snowshoe hiking days. Snowshoeing is a great alternative for students who might be intimidated to snowboard due to their physical limitations. On March 23rd, 2007 we took students to Frog Lake snow park for out first snowshoe hike. Thanks go out to Next Adventure outdoor store, who loan us snowshoes free of charge.

Our most ambitious project last season was to establish a new Snowdays program in Wasilla, Alaska. Wasilla is a small town in the Mat-Su Valley about 45 miles north of Anchorage.

Jason Moore is a teacher at Wasilla Middle School, and his wife Tara is a substance abuse counselor at Burchell High School. These schools both have a high percentage of students from low-income families. At Wasilla middle school, nearly 40% of students are on the free and reduced lunch program. Burchell is an alternative school for teen parents, and for students who were not successful in the traditional school environment.

For the past three years, Jason has encouraged reading at the middle school with his "Shredfest" program. Students who meet their reading goals are rewarded with a professional snowboard exhibition - on school property! Jason and his crew set up jumps, rails and a wallride at the middle school, and then pro riders like our own Travis Parker and X-Games champion Jason Borgestede show their talents and amaze the kids.

When Jason and Tara learned about Snowdays, they realized that it could be another great tool to encourage their students. Jason contacted us to ask how they could establish a similar program in Alaska.

In March 2007, Snowdays founder Travis Parker and I traveled to Wasilla. We brought 20 sets of snowboard outerwear to get the Alaska program up and running, and Snowdays provided funding to run two trips. During a very busy week, we worked on the Shredfest demo and then helped Jason and Tara run two successful day trips to the Alyeska resort.

Fundraising is our priority for the fall. Our goal is to raise $20,000 through grant applications. We have already secured two $5,000 donations, so we are halfway there. This will enable us to fund 16 day trips next season, and allow us to purchase our own 15-passenger van for transportation. We are also working on donations for groceries and gas to reduce our costs.

Our first event for the winter will be the Portland Ski Expo, on November 2-4. This will be our third year at the Expo and we will be selling merchandise, raising money with our prize wheel, and recruiting new volunteers.

Many thanks go out to the fantastic crew of Snowdays volunteers. Every year we add dedicated new folks who donate their time to help kids go snowboarding. Thanks are also due to the generous companies who donate to Snowdays every winter: Windell's Camp, Timberline Lodge, Holden, Dakine, Bonfire, and Roxy.