Barbara Amy – December 27th, 2020

It’s the look on their faces — when kids new to the program take those first jumps off the 10 meter jump — so filled with joy at what they’ve just accomplished!  It just fills me up with happiness!  I’d take a picture and post it here, but I’m not comfortable posting pictures of other people’s kids on social media, so you’ll just have to imagine it.  The first time they looked at these jumps, they thought, that’s scary….but I want to try it!  And the sense of accomplishment, the feeling that they are capable, well, that’s what you as a parent want for your kids — for them to know they can do big things!  Then you notice how the other kids in the club care for each other — if someone falls, there are always calls of “are you ok?” from whomever is nearby.  This club is a special community — the kids don’t tear each other down like I’ve seen with so many sports teams.  These kids lift each other up.  I remember once one kid trying a bigger jump for the first time at the end of practice, feeling a little scared, and hoping someone else would be there with him to encourage him.  Everyone else was done jumping, and one of the older boys offered to go up to the top of the jump with him to help him gather the courage to try it.  No adult prodded that older boy to go, he offered because that’s the sense of community this club is developing in these kids.  These kids, they’ve got big dreams, maybe even some dreams involving multi-colored rings and torches that travel the world to light a flame every four years.  I’ll be supporting those dreams for as long as I am able, even in difficult times like these.

Curator’s Note-
Team Alaska seems to have an exceptional sense of mission, commitment, and support.  Barbara didn’t have any photos to show the emotion that you see in kids’ faces the first time they actually fly, but Jed had some great shots- taken by Cooper Dodds for an Outside Magazine article- of a Summer Solstice event that Team AK hosted under the midnight sun where kids jumped well past midnight.  These seem to convey the sense of community and joy that Barbara was getting at.