{"id":109438,"date":"2015-09-17T19:45:29","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T01:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/skate-competition-casts-light-on-youth-mentoring-program-2\/"},"modified":"2015-09-17T19:45:29","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T01:45:29","slug":"skate-competition-casts-light-on-youth-mentoring-program-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/skate-competition-casts-light-on-youth-mentoring-program-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Skate competition casts light on youth mentoring program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ryan
Ryan Utley flies up for a trick at the skateboard park during the Z-Go Suicide Awareness and Prevention Memorial Skate Competition at Parque de Vida in 2012.<\/span>The Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Pi\u00f1on Project has teamed up with Colorado Skate Collective to put on the inaugural Youth Mentor Skate Jam, a kid-friendly skate competition at Parque de Vida scheduled for next Saturday.<\/p>\n

The free competition, open to skaters ages 7 to 17, will feature a demo from the Colorado Skate Collective skate team, trophies and prizes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first skate competition that we\u2019re really involved with, and is more geared toward the type of stuff we want to do in the community in the future,\u201d said Colorado Skate Collective owner Michelle Harrison.<\/p>\n

Mike Yank, youth activities leader for the Pi\u00f1on Project, says that in addition to being a fun, organized and free event for local kids, he\u2019s aiming for the Skate Jam to be a springboard for more participation in the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP!).<\/p>\n

The program, which matches adult mentors with juvenile mentees, has gotten an overhaul over the last year, launching more after school activities. Upcoming \u201cEarly Release Day\u201d outings, which are Wednesdays from 2:30 to 5 p.m., include golfing at South Forty Golf Course, biking at Phil\u2019s World and a llama trek hike in the San Juan Mountains.<\/p>\n

The mentor program requires a one-year commitment for three hours per week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really trying to get more mentors involved,\u201d said Yank. \u201cA lot of people say think that they\u2019re no qualified, or don\u2019t know what they\u2019d do with the kids. \u2026 It\u2019s just about spending time with them. That time you spend talking with them makes a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far a the Youth Mentor Skate Jam goes, both Harrison and Yank hope it\u2019s something the skaters of Cortez come out for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so excited to do something like this, it\u2019s right up our alley,\u201d said Harrison.<\/p>\n

The Youth Mentor Skate Jam at the Parque de Vida skate park is Saturday Sept. 26 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Registration begins at 9 a.m. and the contest is at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n

For more information about the Youth Empowerment Program or mentoring with Pi\u00f1on Project, contact Mike Yank: myank@pinonproject.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Project, Skate Collective team up for Cortez event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[21],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-109438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-cortez"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109438"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=109438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}