{"id":38854,"date":"2018-09-25T09:55:19","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T16:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=38854"},"modified":"2025-11-20T20:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T04:07:08","slug":"rei-presents-safe-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/video\/rei-presents-safe-haven","title":{"rendered":"REI Presents: Safe Haven"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/span>tepping into Memphis Rox<\/a>, you\u2019ll notice its high walls with climbing routes extending to the ceiling, the bouldering area\u2019s assortment of colorful holds peppered along the way. It\u2019s the city\u2019s first dedicated climbing gym and, on the surface, it\u2019s typical\u2014dusty from chalk and alive with energy. What stands out is its mission: using climbing\u2019s long-known tenets\u2014hard work, perseverance and trust\u2014to inspire a community to get involved in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationship starts as soon as they walk into the door,\u201d says Chris Dean, the 26-year-old director of outreach for Memphis Rox. \u201cYou get to know people. You get to know what they don\u2019t want anyone to know. And then you can be their support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memphis Rox, which opened its doors in April 2018, operates under a pay-what-you-can model designed to be inclusive so that everyone is welcome regardless of their ability to pay. The climbing gym represents a larger movement in Memphis to promote an active lifestyle and improve access to the outdoors. Just outside the walls of the gym, bike lanes crisscross the neighborhood, connecting to Cooper-Young or downtown, snaking through Overton Park and beyond. Residents increasingly see cycling as a viable mode of transportation, thanks to a significant increase in bike infrastructure over the last decade.<\/p>\n

Although the gym is only eight months old, Dean says its model is already fueling an interest in the sport among Memphians, especially in his neighborhood, who haven\u2019t had access to it before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel at one with climbing,\u201d says Brittany Luckett, a junior at LeMoyne-Owen College in South Memphis, who grew up in the nearby Whitehaven neighborhood. \u201cBut at first, I didn\u2019t know it was a sport that people did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckett discovered limbing through Tom Shadyac, a director and philanthropist who teaches at her college and is the creative mind behind Memphis Rox. On her first visit to the gym, Luckett spent hours on the walls, initially drawn in by the challenge of a new feat, but her newfound abilities have kept her involved with climbing. \u201cI really didn\u2019t know I was good at climbing until they put me up on the wall and I climbed a 5.9,\u201d she says. \u201cI was climbing like a pro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Luckett teaches youth the basics of climbing as an instructor at Memphis Rox. She says her work goes beyond form or technique; it\u2019s also \u201chelping keep kids off the streets.\u201d 2017 Census data showed that nearly 44 percent of children<\/a> in Memphis lived in poverty, while nationwide the child poverty rate continued to drop to 12.3 percent<\/a>. As she gets to know the kids in the community, she hopes to brighten their lives by helping them to cultivate the same positive values she gained from the sport. \u201cWe motivate them and push them,\u201d she says. \u201cAs soon as they realize they can do it, they face their fears and accomplish something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mural<\/p>\n

The gym is located in Soulsville, a neighborhood in South Memphis rich with history. The area is the birthplace of Aretha Franklin and home to Stax Records. Although the South was still divided due to Jim Crow laws when Stax opened in 1957, it \u201cwas an oasis of racial harmony,\u201d says Tim Sampson, communications director for the Soulsville Foundation. \u201cStax had an open-door policy and they didn\u2019t care if musicians were Black or white. They were working in here like a family. But yet they couldn\u2019t go to the same restaurant together or the same hotels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sampson says the heyday ended in 1975 when Stax faced bankruptcy and lost the building. Around the same time, he says a new interstate was completed nearby, hastening the pace of urban flight. \u201cYou had a lack of employment in this neighborhood,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of a sudden, there was no place for anyone to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original Stax studio was razed in 1989, while the area around it continued to become blighted, accompanied by an uptick in crime. Throughout the \u201990s, the neighborhood entered a downward spiral, and the area near Stax deteriorated into a garbage-covered, empty lot. \u201cIt was one of the worst sights of urban blight you could possibly imagine,\u201d Sampson says.<\/p>\n

Five years of reinvestment resulted in the 2003 opening of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music<\/a>, which debuted at the site of the old studio building. Sampson says the museum ignited a renewed interest in Soulsville, as tourists from around the world flocked to the area. But there was still progress to be made. A nearby neighborhood was named the most dangerous in the nation<\/a> in 2017, a year in which 181 homicides<\/a> were reported in the city\u201416.3 deaths per 100,000 people while the national<\/a> rate in 2017 was 6.2.<\/p>\n

Luckett says those statistics don\u2019t define her community. She points to the nurturing environment at Memphis Rox as an example that the city is changing for the better. Located across the street from Stax, the gym is part of a new, 5-acre complex encompassing Memphis Mountaintop Media that will eventually house an art school and film studio, founded by Shadyac. The space will operate under the same principles as Memphis Rox\u2014be affordable, inclusive and serve as a place of growth for the community\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n

Across the city, murders are down 17.6 percent<\/a> in the first nine months of 2018, according to preliminary figures from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Based on 2017 data, the Memphis metro area is also no longer the worst<\/a> in the country for childhood poverty for areas with populations above one million, The Commercial Appeal reported. As more people visit the gym, Luckett says it\u2019s morphing into a symbol that transcends climbing, representing an opportunity to continue to heal her community while bringing a city together. \u201cMore people are coming here,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd this is a great place to come to. Everyone gets along with each other, and it\u2019s a place for people to meet others from all different backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Luckett and staff are able to educate Memphians by introducing a more health-conscious lifestyle to a region with rates of obesity and diabetes<\/a> higher than the national average. The gym offers yoga, along with other fitness and tai chi classes, and eventually plans to add nutritional classes using the gym\u2019s juice bar. \u201cPeople taste the healthy food here and love it,\u201d she says. \u201cThey come in here thinking climbing isn\u2019t exercise, but it is. It is helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he city\u2019s growing appetite for outdoors activities extends to bicycling. In 2010, Memphis had a mile-and-a-half of on-street bike facilities, according to Nicholas Oyler, the city\u2019s bikeway and pedestrian program manager. That same year, Bicycling<\/em> magazine ranked the city as one of the worst for cycling in the nation<\/a>. But this year, the magazine ranks Memphis at 31 out of the 50 best bike cities<\/a> in America. Oyler says the city is on track to end the year with nearly 300 miles of cycling infrastructure of all types.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to the efforts of the city government and that advocates have taken in the last several years,\u201d he says. \u201cAny city that wants to be successful and prosper needs to have a balanced and safe multi-nodal network. We can no longer rely on cars as a primary way to get around our community, whether for the environment or safety reasons or physical health.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2010, city officials began building bike lanes wherever they could, which meant they didn\u2019t always link up. But Oyler called those the \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d that were easy to lay down. Now his office is working to connect those lanes and improve the current infrastructure. The city\u2019s latest big project, the Hampline, is a 2-mile, two-way cycle track with a raised concrete median to separate it from car traffic, one of the first of its kind in Memphis. Oyler says it should be completed by summer 2019.<\/p>\n

Part of the city\u2019s investment in cycling aims to improve access and create transportation options for everyone, especially low-income residents, according to Oyler. \u201cSo, if we have streets that only work for cars and not for people walking or riding [bikes], then that\u2019s a problem. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working to provide more cycling access for the city has been Sylvia Crum\u2019s mission since she moved to the area six years ago. She\u2019s partnered with Oyler as the executive director for Revolutions Bicycle Co-op<\/a>, an organization providing a work space for cyclists, also acting as a voice for cycling in the city. Revolutions hosts events aimed at introducing people to cycling, including trips to breweries and summer camps for youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is building a more inclusive community by getting people on bicycles,\u201d Crum says. \u201cWe really feel like we can help create transportation options and make transportation more equitable by working with folks that use bicycles as a tool for transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, People for Bikes selected Memphis as one of 10 cities to participate in its Big Jump Project<\/a>, an initiative to help create better biking infrastructure across the country. The nonprofit selected South Memphis as the focus area and, with a three-year grant, the city is now able to funnel new investment to not only fix the streets but institute programming and education.<\/p>\n

Part of that programming includes the South Memphis Glide Ride<\/a>, a night out on bikes where community members ride the streets with Crum and other cyclists to learn about the benefits of using a bike\u2014and it\u2019s also an opportunity for people to see that cycling can be a safe, viable mode of transportation. \u201cWe can show the residents of South Memphis that this is a fun way to get out and be with their community, see the amenities that are in their community,\u201d Crum says.<\/p>\n

The first series kicked off last fall, with the latest string lasting until mid-November. Of course, Crum says an upside to having more people on bikes is the inherent health benefits. Although she\u2019s focused on cycling for transportation, she says there are many options for recreational riders. The Shelby Farms Greenline<\/a>, for instance, is a rails-to-trails project that wends 10.6 miles from midtown to the eastern reaches of the city. Shelby Farms Park estimates 100,000 people used the trail last year.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Dailey, communications coordinator with Shelby Farms Park, says the 4,500-acre urban space serves as a resource for Memphians to connect with one another and nature.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s a space where people come to have a retreat from their everyday life, but also a place to come together as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now feasible for someone to hop on a bike at several points in the city, riding on a network of bike paths to Shelby Farms Park with access to more than 40 miles of paved and unpaved trails, such as the Tour de Wolf Trail<\/a>, one of the most popular hiking trails in the area. More than 20 lakes provide access to anglers, and at any time of day, you\u2019ll find joggers, mountain bikers or folks just enjoying this slice of nature only minutes from downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are at a point in time where, as a community, we have a real sense of pride of place that hadn\u2019t existed before.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those who don\u2019t have transportation to Shelby Farms Park, staff members host educational and fitness programs that cater to the surrounding neighborhoods. \u201cWe have a mobile classroom that we take into schools,\u201d Dailey says. \u201cSo, we\u2019re really trying to create a bridge between the Park and the community in every way that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

These programs, called Get Outside Fitness<\/a>, received funding in 2016 through a three-year, $450,000 grant from the state of Tennessee to help combat juvenile diabetes. Dozens of free fitness programs are offered each week like meditation, yoga or karate, ranging from beginner to intermediate. Last year alone, Dailey says, more than 6,000 people attended one of the programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are at a point in time where, as a community, we have a real sense of pride of place that hadn\u2019t existed before,\u201d says Dailey, a lifelong Memphis resident. \u201cIt\u2019s so exciting to see the community asking for what they want and championing it, and it actually coming to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wolf River snakes by Shelby Farms Park on its way to the Mississippi River, where a 2.6-mile greenway will eventually total 36 miles, linking to neighborhoods across north Memphis to downtown. The Wolf River Conservancy<\/a> bills the greenway as a connector of communities, helping to reduce crime and generally improve the quality of life for residents. Jim Gafford, director of outreach, also says the organization gets locals involved with paddling trips on the Wolf River and camping, providing a spark to get them involved in preserving the riparian zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the South, we don\u2019t have a shortage of water,\u201d he says. \u201cWe may take water for granted here, so we\u2019re trying to change that mindset by getting people to realize how beautiful the river is. Then they appreciate it more and work with us to enhance it.\u201d<\/p>\n

F<\/span>or Chris Dean of Memphis Rox, the city\u2019s embrace of an outdoors lifestyle is perhaps most apparent in Soulsville. He\u2019s watching a new generation grow up in his neighborhood, but with different opportunities than he had. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in poverty every day, you\u2019re trying to think about where your next meal is going to come from,\u201d he says. \u201cBut then you get to come to a place where they\u2019ll let you eat for free and give you something to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He mentions climbing, which will be included in the 2020 summer games, with dreams of one day seeing an African-American win a gold medal in the event. He says he believes the youth of South Memphis, those first-time climbers who are getting a chance they never had before, have what it takes to make that happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to a kid the other day,\u201d Dean says. \u201cWhen I was his age, I wanted to be a [professional basketball] player. That was the only thing I knew existed. I asked the kid, \u2018What do you want to do when you grow up?\u2019\u201d Dean pauses to smile, his expression brightening. \u201cHe said a rock climber.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

tepping into Memphis Rox, you\u2019ll notice its high walls with climbing routes extending to the ceiling, the bouldering area\u2019s assortment of colorful holds peppered along the way. It\u2019s the city\u2019s first dedicated climbing gym and, on the surface, it\u2019s typical\u2014dusty from chalk and alive with energy. What stands out is its mission: using climbing\u2019s long-known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7325,"featured_media":38855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,717],"tags":[734,733,1127,2217,1542,725,983],"internal-tag":[1494,1679],"class_list":["post-38854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climb","category-video","tag-climbing","tag-co-op-cinema","tag-cycling","tag-rei-cooperative-action-fund","tag-south","tag-video","tag-videos","post_format-post-format-video","internal-tag-co-op-studios","internal-tag-pre-redirect-climbing"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/video\/rei-presents-safe-haven","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"REI Presents: Safe Haven","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/video\/rei-presents-safe-haven","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/video\/rei-presents-safe-haven"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/rei-safe_haven-thumb-01.png?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/rei-safe_haven-thumb-01.png?fit=1229%2C692"},"articleSection":"Climb","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Anders Nordblom"}],"creator":["Anders Nordblom"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["climbing","co-op cinema","cycling","rei cooperative action fund","south","video","videos"],"dateCreated":"2018-09-25T16:55:19Z","datePublished":"2018-09-25T16:55:19Z","dateModified":"2025-11-21T04:07:08Z"},"rendered":"