Climbing, compassion, community in Soulsville
“If you inspire people with a kind, generous act, then that has a ripple effect,” Tom Shadyac told me last week. We were talking about Memphis Rox, the climbing gym he founded in
2018 as a nonprofit in the underserved Soulsville neighborhood of Memphis, Tenn.
Shadyac, 62, radiates kindness, compassion and authenticity. He’s a screenwriter, director, author, college professor (he taught at CU in 2014-2015) and philanthropist, among other titles. Famous for directing hit movies like “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “Patch Adams,” “Bruce Almighty” and others, he turned his back on a life of luxury in California, where he owned a clifftop mansion overlooking the ocean in Malibu, and settled in Memphis to invest in the people of Soulsville vís-a-vís Memphis Rox.
“I had the beach, the ocean, the sunrise and it was gorgeous. But everybody’s comfortable,” he said. “While we sit on the cushion of advantage, we fall asleep.”
The love he found in Memphis proved deeper than the ocean outside his window, he explained. “The soul here, also the sin here — it was just a richer experience than what I was experiencing in Malibu.”
Jarmond Johnson, a 22-year-old staff member at Memphis Rox, is a former gang member. A few years back one of his friends was shot and killed outside a Memphis store. “He took his last breath in my arms,” said Johnson. “From that day forward I thought, I gotta do something different.”
His mother, Florence, started working at “Rox,” as locals call it, and he followed suit. “One of the first times I heard an adult male tell me he was proud of me was in this place,” he said.
“I was like 19 years old. I teared up a little because it was weird, you get what
I’m saying?”
With Rox, Shadyac has replicated the financial ideal championed by nearby St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, where everyone receives treatment regardless of their ability to pay. Shadyac’s father and uncles helped build that hospital almost 60 years ago.
Today, it’s thriving. “Because what they’re doing is so powerful,” said Shadyac. “That’s why I think what we have here is a revolution. I didn’t want to start a rock climbing gym; we wanted to all start a revolution.” The revolution, he explained, is the inherent power of doing good, and that when you have something to give, you give.
Customers at Rox decide what they’re going to pay. Some purchase a day pass (a modest $12 for adults), others donate $5, or sometimes $50. “If you don’t have anything, then we sign you up for the volunteer program,” said Jon Hawk, director of operations. “It’s 5 hours a month for a month membership.” Volunteer hours include things such as mentorship, washing holds, handing out free lunches and neighborhood cleanups.
During the pandemic, staff and volunteers gave away hand sanitizer, masks and produce boxes. They served 150-200 free lunches a day. And they haven’t stopped. I asked who the lunches are for. “Anybody who wants them,” Shadyac said.
I also asked whether the pay-what-you-can model is working. He paused, then said with a laugh, “There are kids who are in a safe environment and have positive experiences. So yeah, it’s working. Are we solvent, and even? Not yet.”
Rox, in its third year of operation, will always need donors to help it serve the people of Soulsville. Which begs the question: is it sustainable?
“It is if you want it to be,” he said. “It’s not about, ‘Is it the right model?’ It’s, ‘Am I inspired by this and is this something I want to sustain?’”
For now, the answer has been a resounding ‘Yes.’ Memphis Rox recently received a grant from The Honnold Foundation — the organization started by famed climber, Alex Honnold — which paid for solar panels on the gym’s roof. The project, completed in late October, has not only helped cut energy costs for Rox, it’s a first step toward environmental justice reform in a city riddled with inequality, and where residents pay some of the highest utility bills in the country.
“There’s nothing like what we’re doing,” said Shadyac. “The community can see that we’re much more than a climbing gym.”