When Jessica Harding’s son, Brayden, asked her for skateboarding lessons a year ago, her first instinct was to tell him no.

A single mother, Harding knew her anxieties sometimes verged on overprotectiveness, but she also had ample reasons to doubt Brayden’s sudden fascination with skateboarding. At 8 years old, her son often struggled to make friends, and his sensory sensitivities and seemingly endless list of fears made navigating most extra-curricular activities torturous. A skate park, Harding thought, would probably be among the least welcoming places for a kid like Brayden. 

Serious Juju proved her assumptions wrong.  

“This has been a breakthrough,” Harding said as she watched Brayden zoom down a wooden ramp, light-up sneakers flashing. “He’s more social with kids. He wants to help people. He’s just learning life skills, I guess.” 

More than 10,000 kids have attended skate sessions at Serious Juju since the nonprofit first opened its doors in 2007. Both the venue and messaging has changed over the years, growing from a garage ministry to an independent secular nonprofit. 

Since 2021, Serious Juju has operated an indoor skate park at Gateway Community Center in Kalispell. The space includes a kitchen, where meals are prepared and served free of charge five evenings a week, as well as a community space stocked with board games. Beyond its regular skate sessions, the organization now partners with other nonprofits, including Miracle League, CASA for Kids and the Center for Restorative Youth Justice, to offer special events for youth of all backgrounds and abilities. 

After nearly two decades of service, the one thing that hasn’t changed, according to operations manager and skateboarding coach Randy Beckstrom, is the safe space that Serious Juju provides. 

“The skateboarding part of this is, yes, cute and niche,” said Beckstrom. “But we’re bringing kids in here and giving them a haven. We’re putting food in their bellies. I literally have kids tell me this is their sanctuary.” 

Now, that sanctuary could be closing for good.  

The recent loss of several outside funding sources, coupled with the ongoing costs of running the indoor skate park, has left Serious Juju skating on the edge of a financial crisis. Earlier this month, the organization confirmed that it would be forced to shut down the indoor skate park on Sept. 6 unless it can raise the funds to cover a roughly $33,500 deficit.  

“The only way a program like this works is with community support,” said Beckstrom. 

In its early years, Serious Juju relied on large foundations and grants for most of its costs, said board member Ross Moncrief. The organization’s early commitment to evangelism attracted donations from churches and other religious organizations. One church member even left their inheritance, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, to Serious Juju. That gift was enough to tide the organization through the Covid-19 pandemic and secure its new facilities at Gateway Community Center.  

Around the same time, Serious Juju began distancing itself from its religious roots. Moncrief said that board and staff members realized the evangelical overtones had limited the organization's reach. Moving toward a more secular mission would make the skate park more accessible, but it also meant that many of the organization's former boosters pulled their contributions. 

“We had to start over, not just with the program, but with how we get funding,” said Moncrief. 

Serious Juju partnered with Flathead Food Bank to secure some of the food it served during community meals, but a new grant requirement ended that relationship earlier this year. Per its funding agreement, the food bank needed to report on the socioeconomic status of all recipients. Moncrief said Serious Juju was uncomfortable asking its participants to provide that sort of information, so the organizations agreed to part ways. 

That loss might have been covered by a federal grant that United Way, the nonprofit that runs Gateway Community Center, received this year. The funds were appropriated to United Way to reimburse Serious Juju and other organizations in the Flathead Valley for the costs they procured while providing emergency food and shelter, but the Trump administration froze the money before the program could go into effect. 

Both losses had a cascading effect as Serious Juju was forced to step away from other capital grant projects due to the organization’s financial uncertainty.  

In 2024, Serious Juju reported about $167,000 in expenses. More than 40% of those funds went toward rent, utilities and the ongoing maintenance of its facilities at Gateway Community Center. Another 38% went toward staff salaries while 12% was reserved for the cost of providing free meals at evening skate sessions. 

Moncrief estimated that about 40% of the 2024 budget came from private donations, but with the loss of outside funding sources, more contributions are needed to see Serious Juju through the end of this year. The organization hopes to solicit $3,500 in new recurring monthly donations and $30,000 in one-time donations within the next two weeks.  

Several of the campaign’s early donations came from families like the Hardings, who know and experience the benefits of the skate park firsthand. 

Since Serious Juju announced its potential closure, Harding said that every penny of Brayden’s allowance has gone toward saving the skate park. When they go shopping, he hands flyers about the fundraising campaign to other customers and asks them to donate. That’s not a small thing, said Harding, as Brayden still struggles to initiate social interactions with strangers. 

“He’s going to be devastated if it closes,” said Harding. 

Other families weathered hours of burning heat in a parking lot outside the Northwest Montana Fair and Rodeo to gather donations and parking fees from attendees. Half the proceeds went to United Way and half went directly toward the campaign to save Serious Juju. 

As of this week, Moncrief said the organization has only raised about 14% of its funding goal. 

“Either the Flathead Valley can support this service or it can't,” wrote Moncrief in an email about the fundraising campaign. “I won't lie. We aren't an essential service saving lives or housing people. We have been doing incredible work with our youth though.” 

With a little bit of the organization’s namesake luck, Moncrief hopes Serious Juju will be able to continue that work for years to come. 

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at 758-4433 or [email protected].