A for-profit ice rink is celebrating the spirit of holiday giving by donating a portion of its proceeds this winter to Valley charities and nonprofit organizations, including a group that serves underprivileged youth.
During the six and a half weeks it is open, NRG Ice at CityScape in downtown Phoenix is donating a portion of its skate rental fees to a different charity each week until Jan 10.
“The ice rink and our work with charities are unique and unexpected, just like downtown,” CityScape spokesman Jeff Moloznik said.
The rink is donating $1 from each $10 skate rental to Genesis City until Dec. 4.
Genesis City is a dropout-intervention organization that offers several programs in central Phoenix to help underprivileged youth succeed. Its most prominent program is Genesis Academy, a charter high school for students ages 14-21.
The charter school serves roughly 200 students each year, Genesis City executive director Karen Callahan said. About 400 teens receive some sort of help from the organization even if they do not participate in the academy.
Last year, the school graduated its largest class — 43 students. Callahan said more than 50 percent of her students go on to postsecondary education.
“We really value our partnership with ASU,” Callahan said. “We try to mainstream the students to the University.”
This partnership includes sending many students to ASU programs such as Summer Bridge and special advising trips for Genesis students, Callahan said.
Callahan and several other members of the school’s staff are ASU alumni.
The school is set up to catch the kids who slip through cracks in large schools, Callahan said.
Genesis Academy has strict behavioral guidelines, including requiring punctuality and uniforms and not permitting any form of street culture, profanity or gum in the school.
Students are tested on their skills before they enter the school and most students are reading at a third or fourth grade level, Callahan said.
“It’s pretty magical what happens once (the students are) here,” she said. “It’s important that educators need to realize that kids do want education, even if they don’t act like it.”
Callahan said her school has done poorly on AIMS tests but that those are an unfair measure of a school’s success, especially for alternative schools like hers.
However, she said her students could go up four or five grade levels in two years.
Many of Callahan’s students participated in skate night on Wednesday at NRG Ice.
“A lot of them wouldn’t have ever ice skated,” Callahan said. “Now they can’t stop talking about it.”
Other charities benefiting this season include the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona and Dress for Success.
Reach the reporter at julia.shumway@asu.edu or follow @JMShumway on Twitter.
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