The Shred Foundation is finding new ways to keep children in Newburgh out of trouble. Danny Hairston, founder of Shred, believes that snowboarding is the answer to teach children valuable life lessons.

“I’ve been doing youth development for 20 years,” said Hairston. “I was asked to do a snowboarding program in Brooklyn and I found the experience with them learning to snowboard was greater than anything I have ever seen done with a youth development program in my history. When I moved up here I knew I wanted to start something up here. It’s a steep learning curb but self advocacy, overcoming obstacles, stepping outside their environment and creativity, are all inherent in snowboarding. Those are things I would like for our kids to learn.”

The foundation will begin its 2019 beginners program on January 27 with 50 kids from the Newburgh Boys and Girls Club, Newburgh Free Academy North and Main Campus, Heritage Middle School and through a registration drive. They will cover all the costs for the trip, so nothing will come out of the parent’s pockets.

A large portion of the donations came from a $10,000 grant from the Share Winter Foundation. The grant covered all the transportation costs for the beginners program.

Hairston hopes to bring kids that progress back into more advanced lessons, and eventually if they have an interest he looks to find them careers in the industry through his network.

“The other side is that we look to transfer the youth into snow industry jobs,” said Hairston. “The goal is that if a kid who falls in love with snowboarding comes to Shred, I can send them to any company knowing that if they came from us that they have a background and a history and they are also going to be exceptional workers.”

The program will be six weeks long with trips to Windham Mountain on Sundays. Hairston’s goal is to continue to grow the foundation to the point where he can create a lab. He wants the kids to understand the retail side and have somewhere they can go to gain the skills they need to join the workforce.

“We hope to create a lab and purchase a bus so we can transport kids to and from jobs so they don’t have to worry about the transportation,” said Hairston. “We want a lab where we can teach them the retail, engineering, marketing, content design, and branding. We are hoping to have a place they can come to hangout but also come to get the skills that they need.”

The group is currently looking for donations of gloves and pants for kids participating in the program. To learn more about the foundation or make a donation to Shred you can visit Shredfoundation.org