Pay it forward request

Hannah Roush - Huge Thank you!!! The brand new pair of 5.10s will be a competition prize I believe!

3 pairs of shoes on the way. Keep up the good work!

Craig Quincy wrote:3 pairs of shoes on the way. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Craig - I'll be looking for them!

Thanks to Mike Mobley - shoes arrived today!!!

Hey Chris I'm gonna try to stop by sometime soon. I'll have to give you a shout when I get time!

Just got a new job so maybe eventually I'll have some extra gear to donate.

BUMP for the cause!

excellent job Chris, glad my box of shoes that were sitting in the room-o-gear have a new home, at least one pair is good to go for a kid, the others are kinda big but they'll work for someone.

BTW- I think just about all kids would enjoy climbing(even the slightly obese 50%) and its a shame that every city doesnt have a place to do this. How did you guys in Crooksville OH. get this going anyways?

TRmasta wrote:excellent job Chris, glad my box of shoes that were sitting in the room-o-gear have a new home, at least one pair is good to go for a kid, the others are kinda big but they'll work for someone. BTW- I think just about all kids would enjoy climbing(even the slightly obese 50%) and its a shame that every city doesnt have a place to do this. How did you guys in Crooksville OH. get this going anyways?

I'm on the Village Council here (been on for over 20 years now)in our small town. Back in 97 we had a very progressive mayor and council and a government program called Wellness Grants existed. Being a climber at that time I approached village government and we were fortunate enough to get one of the grants. There were several adult climbers here at the time and we (along with the village engineer) put together a plan that allowed us to build about a third of the wall you see today - we climbers did all the construction work and all the holds we used were holds I already owned from my outdoor climbing wall I had at my house. A few years later we got another grant and built more wall and bought more holds and harnesses. A few more years and one more grant and we built the arch portion you see in the pictures along with more holds. Our community bank donated money for more harnesses last year and we solicited outside businesses for new ropes last year. So practically all the money given us went to materials and almost no labor charges. I furnish all the chalk used and we have several regular adult volunteers that are there every week. What usually happens is we adults belay the small kids the first couple hours - than after the kids leave, we belayers climb for a while. It's all run by volunteers so no expense there either. We were fortunate as a village to have an old high school gymnasium already as a recreation center with enough ceiling height to allow a nice climbing wall to be built. It's a multi purpose rec center where we offer much more than just climbing and have to share time etc with everything else that goes on. We are blessed to have this in a town our size - roughly 2500 people. I think this can be done in other towns given the right circumstances and a group of volunteers willing to do all the work of running it.

ZANE wrote:Hey Chris I'm gonna try to stop by sometime soon. I'll have to give you a shout when I get time! Just got a new job so maybe eventually I'll have some extra gear to donate. BUMP for the cause!

Zane - come on down anytime. I'd love to show some of the wonderful people from the forum what we are doing here and let you get some climbing in! Remember we are only open Thursday evenings.

Chris Rice wrote: I'm on the Village Council here (been on for over 20 years now)in our small town. Back in 97 we had a very progressive mayor and council and a government program called Wellness Grants existed. Being a climber at that time I approached village government and we were fortunate enough to get one of the grants. There were several adult climbers here at the time and we (along with the village engineer) put together a plan that allowed us to build about a third of the wall you see today - we climbers did all the construction work and all the holds we used were holds I already owned from my outdoor climbing wall I had at my house. A few years later we got another grant and built more wall and bought more holds and harnesses. A few more years and one more grant and we built the arch portion you see in the pictures along with more holds. Our community bank donated money for more harnesses last year and we solicited outside businesses for new ropes last year. So practically all the money given us went to materials and almost no labor charges. I furnish all the chalk used and we have several regular adult volunteers that are there every week. What usually happens is we adults belay the small kids the first couple hours - than after the kids leave, we belayers climb for a while. It's all run by volunteers so no expense there either. We were fortunate as a village to have an old high school gymnasium already as a recreation center with enough ceiling height to allow a nice climbing wall to be built. It's a multi purpose rec center where we offer much more than just climbing and have to share time etc with everything else that goes on. We are blessed to have this in a town our size - roughly 2500 people. I think this can be done in other towns given the right circumstances and a group of volunteers willing to do all the work of running it.

Nice. Living in a town where the youth have just about NOTHING to do after school and in a very rich, liberal, and penny pinching state(govt) I'm curious what could be done here. I'll PM you with more questions.

Craig Quincy wrote:3 pairs of shoes on the way. Keep up the good work!

Shoes arrived today - Thank You!!!

TRmasta wrote: Nice. Living in a town where the youth have just about NOTHING to do after school and in a very rich, liberal, and penny pinching state(govt) I'm curious what could be done here. I'll PM you with more questions.

Just let me know if I can help in any way.

I just started climbing, so I don't have any gear to contribute, but for the people that are helping by sending shoes are really amazing. To help out strangers like that? That's truly awesome.

Shoes - harnesses - chalk bags - a huge box from Vertical Adventures in Columbus Ohio - WOW! Thank You!!!

Hey there... someone just posted this thread over in r/climbing on reddit. I've got a couple pairs of shoes and a (handmade by me!) chalkbag I can send you. Will aim to get them in the post this week!

Chris Rice wrote:Shoes - harnesses - chalk bags - a huge box from Vertical Adventures in Columbus Ohio - WOW! Thank You!!!

Chris,
Can you use those? My wife was worried about the condition of the shoes. :-)

I'll be in touch about getting everyone together.

Keep up the good work!

-Matt

Matt Roberts wrote: Chris, Can you use those? My wife was worried about the condition of the shoes. :-) I'll be in touch about getting everyone together. Keep up the good work! -Matt

Matt - one of the chalk bags kind of exploded in shipping. I took the air hose to everything and cleaned them up and they were used the night I carried in the box - the kids descended on the box like a pack of wolves :). I put a touch of Barge Cement on one pair. Even the shoes that you and I might consider worn out are so much better than no shoes at all - the kids are using everything - Thanks again!

Stephanie W. wrote:Hey there... someone just posted this thread over in r/climbing on reddit. I've got a couple pairs of shoes and a (handmade by me!) chalkbag I can send you. Will aim to get them in the post this week!

Thank you! I don't know what reddit is (I'm old and a computer idiot) but thanks also to whoever did that as well!

Thank You to Jonathon Lipkin! Another pair of shoes!

How's the rec center going? Are u still there? Still want some shoes?

Mike - the Rec Center shuts down over the summer - the kids simply are busy with other things and the adult climbers are all climbing outside. This is the time I take off all the holds and run them through the dishwasher - check anchors and ropes closely - repaint as needed - you know, all the little things it's hard to do by yourself in season. I need to get a tube of Barge Cement and fix a few of the shoes we have been given - a few shoe laces etc. But the answer to your question is Yes - we can always use shoes. Thanks!