Words: James Hancock 2021-01-25 18:25:39
Jake Olson-Elm (left) and Joe Sexton (right) give 10-year-old Lashay Matthews some pointers during a Cool Meets Cause session at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, MN. Photo: Tony Saunders/Star Tribune It’s a bitter-cold January night at the Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, MN. Joe Sexton and Jake Olson-Elm stand surrounded by 20 or so teenage girls from North Minneapolis, along with a few of their parents. The group huddles at the bottom of the hill, which stands at approximately 100 vertical feet. Floodlights cast yellow-blue shadows across the slope’s meticulously groomed hardpack. The hum of the rope-tow mixes with the scraping and slicing of metal edges on firm corduroy, providing the backdrop to adolescent shrieks of joy. Joe, Jake and a handful of other dedicated volunteer coaches laugh with the kids, give pointers, adjust bootlaces, and celebrate every successful heel-toe transfer. They’re here with the snowboard outreach program Cool Meets Cause. Joe and Jake helped launch the program in 2018 with the desire to share snowboarding with kids living in the lower-income shadow of this urban-adventure oasis. The pair wanted to give back to the sport that has given them so much community, positivity, confidence, creativity and more. Joe and Jake’s reinvestment effort has found form in providing youth with the opportunity to experience the fulfillment of snowboarding, which has brought such depth to their own lives. Theodore Wirth Park is one of the largest urban parks in the country. Miles of mountain bike and running trails weave through acres of hardwood forest, mere miles from the downtown skyline. A small ski hill occupies prime real estate next to the brand-new Trailhead Center, yet many people from the immediately adjacent North Minneapolis neighborhoods have never experienced the joy of sliding down its modest slopes. In stark contrast to Theodore Wirth being an adventure hub for so many is the near-total lack of participation from many of the surrounding low-income communities, many of which are predominately made up of people of color. At the beginning of 2018, Joe and Jake were exploring the option of relaunching their iconic 1817 Park, a terrain park that had previously been at Buck Hill, located in south metro Twin Cities. Meanwhile, Anthony Taylor-Theba was working as the adventure director for the Loppet Foundation, which operates outdoor programs within Theodore Wirth, and was looking for help with a new snowboard program. Kyle Hansen, a local teacher and buddy of Jake’s, recognized the need among his students for access to outdoor opportunities and envisioned the role snowboarding could play in that. The four teamed up and Cool Meets Cause was born. “It was just this serendipitous thing,” Joe says. “Anthony and Jake started talking and became close. One day I got involved in a meeting and we just all hit it off. Anthony’s an awesome dude. We loved his energy, and it blossomed into wanting to work together on something.” When the program, consisting entirely of Kyle’s students, ended up being all female, the crew reached out to another critical collaborator, local snowboard coach Melissa Ruebl. She brought experience from running female snowboard camps and elevated the program from simply learning to ride, to using snowboarding as a vehicle for self-empowerment. “You hope it sort of switches their brain into this cool mindset of like, ‘I can kinda do anything now,’” Joe says. As the night wears on and the temp dips below zero, a brave mom—one of few parents who has joined her daughter on-hill this frigid evening—slides past Jake to a skipping stop. She turns back and says, “Jake, I’ve never done anything outside in the wintertime in Minnesota in my whole life!” Jake asks, “Really? How long have you lived in Minnesota?” Maybe surprised by the question, or perhaps by her own answer, she replies, “40 years.” For the Cool Meets Cause crew, this is what it’s all about. The joy of suddenly linking turns. The power of realizing a new skill that seemed impossible and, with it, the confidence to keep pushing. “That’s the cool part,” Jake says, “those little moments.”
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