We recently connected with Danny Hairston and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Danny thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The mission of SHRED was born out of my love of snowboarding and the desire to create meaningful youth development programming using snowboarding as the conduit. Having worked as a youth development professional for almost two decades and having held national leadership positions both with Burton Snowboard’s Chill Foundation and Stoked Mentoring, I knew the benefits of snowboarding when it came to positive youth development. However, also having an understanding of the inner workings of the snowboarding industry, I wanted to create opportunities for our youth to obtain skills and training that would provide them the ability to step into the industry, thus creating a new generation of knowledgeable and diverse industry professionals.

Danny, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have 25 years of experience as a youth development professional. For over a decade, I have created curriculum in addition to managing and implementing board sports based youth development programs as the former Fundraising and Event Coordinator for Burton Snowboards’ Chill Foundation, former Senior Program Manager for Stoked Mentoring and former Program Director for Hoods to Woods in Brooklyn, NY.

I got into snowboarding by accident. I was working as an after school supervisor in a a Brooklyn high school where kids were participating in Burton’s Chill program. My co-worker, who had been the chaperone years previously had gone back to college and was unable to participate so she asked me if I would take her place. At the time, I was a thirty-something black guy from Central Ohio. I never grew up skiing nor snowboarding, but there was no other adult to chaperone and through the coaxing of a student who had participated in the program previously and loved it, I signed myself up. In learning to snowboard with the students I realized that programs such as this had a profound impact on both the kids and myself. I fell in love with snowboarding and went from chaperone to volunteer, to NYC Coordinator to working for the foundation on a national level. This is where my journey started.

Snowboarding presents so many life lessons. Everything from resiliency to self confidence, to creativity, to individuality to the importance of the environment and having a community. SHRED embraces these qualities as part of our core values and provides the ability for youth in underserved communities to experience fully realize these things through an activity that they would never have the financial ability to do on their own.

Unlike most programs, we work with our youth for multiple years in order to progress them to intermediate proficiency. Sixty five percent of our youth have been in the program three years or more. Once a youth reaches an intermediate level, we provide them gear to snowboard on their own or, through our career based programming, go out and work. Over the years we have had youth gain their snowboard instructor certification as well as one youth who has gone on to begin a career as a filmer.

Along with our workforce development programming, we have introduced a mental health component “SHRED the Stigma.” This component allows us to also integrate mental health awareness, wellness and access into the work we do with our youth. I am extremely proud of the fact that we have been able to provide these components to our youth while still promoting and honoring the culture of snowboarding that we love so much.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think the biggest key for us building our reputation has been our steadfast adherence to having everything we do and put forth in the public sphere be motivated by snowboard culture. The education of our youth, the events that we conduct and our decisions on who to partner with are always met with the question “does this support the culture?” I believe this has gone a long way reputation wise.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The framework to our overall youth development philosophy was motivated by “Shop Class As Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work” by Matthew Crawford.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shredfoundation.org
• Instagram: shredfndn
• Facebook: SHRED Foundation
• Twitter: shredfndn
• Youtube: @shredfoundation4364

Image Credits
speaking photo credit :Jesse Lynn Dawson