For the week of December 12 - 18, 2001

From ski bum 
to youth activist

Grider becomes an 
AmeriCorp Promise Fellow

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By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer

After a decade of teaching snowboarding and working odd jobs, part-time Wood River Valley resident Janelle Grider has decided to eschew life as a ski bum and give something more back to the community.

Janelle Grider. Express photo by Travis Purser

Last month, the energetic Grider, 33, began working with the St. Luke’s Center for Community Health helping teenagers and adults better understand each other.

After a lengthy application process, Grider has become an AmeriCorp Promise Fellow, a position of community service that is the equivalent of joining a domestic Peace Corps.

"I wasn’t involved," she said of her previous way of life. "I hope through this job I can open some people’s eyes. There are kids here who need to be valued."

The position lasts for one year, and Grider is just beginning to outline what she will specifically work on during that time. But she’ll spend much of her time meeting with and helping the Blaine County Youth Partnership and the Blaine County Teen Advisory Council, two activist groups that meet regularly to work on projects that help youth and adults connect and help youth grow up healthy.

Projects the groups have worked on or completed include implementing a Friday night teen bus from Bellevue to Ketchum, providing a job board and online services to help teens find work, and running the Romancing the Bean coffeehouse for high school students, to name a few.

The Teen Advisory Council is filled with high-achieving kids who helped interview Grider for her new position. Grider said that was the toughest part of becoming an AmeriCorp fellow, because the kids asked her what she could do for them.

Grider is already helping the youths plan a $15,000, grant-funded media campaign aimed at alleviating misconceptions adults and youth have about each other.

She said she sees those misconceptions manifested in day-to-day life. During the recent Festival of Trees, for example, when people of all ages gathered publicly, she witnessed adults avoiding teenagers.

"There is kind of the attitude that adults have had bad experiences with high school kids in the past," so now they’re going to avoid all high school kids, she said. And the reverse happens with kids avoiding adults.

Grider said that some youth who break the law and are put on probation are assigned to participate in the youth groups. That way, the groups reach out to a larger group of teenagers than just the high-achievers.

The fellowship, which will require 1,700 hours of Grider’s time over the next 10 to 12 months pays a scant $13,000, before taxes.

"I live a simple life," Greider said.

And, she’ll get an additional $4,725 at the end of her work to help with school costs. She plans to attend the Leadership Institute of Seattle to study counseling.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.