Since its arrival three years ago in Twin Falls, the Jae Foundation has built a footing from the ground up to preach the importance of affirming mental health.
And by ground up, that goal starts straight from the boots.
The foundation’s icon is boots – Jae boots, to be more specific. And with their growing ubiquity around the Magic Valley, from the yard signs showing off a cartoon boot, down to the purchase and renovation of an impressive headquarters on the Twin Falls canyon rim, the Jae Foundation and its Jae boots are expanding on a simple but important mission – to encourage checking in on others and their personal well-being.
It’s a goal supported by giving away Western boots, some 11,000 over the past few years, in fact. Founder Jason Vickrey and his wife, Paige, have dedicated the work of Jae’s Place to Jason’s friend Jae Bob Bing, whom he grew up with in the ranching community of Pinedale, Wyoming. Each pair given reaffirms a lifelong commitment Vickrey made never to let someone’s need for a listening ear go unnoticed.
Pictures from the life of Jae Bob Bing are shown on a gallery wall at the Jae Foundation offices. Photo by David Cooper.
Jae’s story
Jae Bob Bing was adopted by the Bing family after his birth in South Korea in 1988 and grew up in Wyoming. His youth was filled with fishing, camping, horses, sports and a crew of lifelong friends. Jae’s parents owned a local Western shop in town, which led to his one ever-present wardrobe staple worn almost every day of his life: his cowboy boots.
“Attire really didn't change Jae’s love for his boots,” said Malan Erke, a community outreach director for Jae’s Foundation. “If he was out in basketball shorts, he was still wearing cowboy boots. If he had on sweats, he was still wearing cowboy boots. At a very young age, his mom said she'd have to sneak into his room after he'd fallen asleep to take off his cowboy boots.”
After graduation, Jae went to the University of Wyoming, and Vickrey came to the College of Southern Idaho (CSI) as part of the men’s basketball program. Yet the circle of friends remained tight. Vickrey married Paige, with Jae serving as a groomsman in their wedding.
“He was a very avid outdoorsman. If he had a second to spare, he was definitely going to live that moment as full as he could,” Erke said. “Jae was a guy that lived with no signs of anxiety, just high energy, pure joy.”
All that changed when Jae Bob Bing took his life in March 2016. When Jason returned to Pinedale for his friend’s funeral, hundreds flooded the local Catholic church to pay respects. Jason couldn’t help but also notice a majority of the mourners were wearing cowboy boots.
Sometime later, Vickrey returned with work colleagues to Pinedale and had a long visit with the Bings in their store. It was in that setting, while remembering Jae, that Vickrey set his mind to do something using boots to remember his beloved friend and make sure his loss wasn’t in vain.
This is a gallery of boots from the Jae Foundation’s 2024 auction. Photo by David Cooper.
The Boot-Check
The first drive for boot giveaways started with $100 and grew from additional donations. By giving away dozens of pairs of Jae boots in their first year, the foundation delivered on a connection its founder had with the boots' namesake. They use boots as a source of connection and introduce the idea of a “Boot-Check,” where friends ask how others are doing, discuss pressures they're facing and if they need to talk about harder questions of depression or suicidal ideation.
At the first stages, Vickrey purchased boots for colleagues and co-workers at local retailers while simultaneously promoting the need for the boot check-in. “It became evident pretty quick. We weren't going to be able to have a real conversation in the middle of a store when people are shopping for a boot right next to you,” Erke said. “That's not a place to open up and talk about mental health.”
The foundation then began seeking a location that could accommodate its goals and settled on a former fitness building on Pole Line Road in Twin Falls, near the Snake River Canyon rim.
The renovated building opened in 2023. It has a sleek modern exterior design, a country Western store aptly named Jae’s Place on the inside, with foundation offices in the back. There are casual sitting areas on the second floor that accommodate social visits, meetings and counseling areas. “Our goal is to support anybody who wants to have those conversations, connect people with additional resources,” Erke said.
Then there are the boots. The store is stocked with dozens of name brands in an array of sizes for men and women. For those who make arrangements with the foundation to learn about Jae and his life, the foundation gives away a pair. But the key is to make boots personal and build connections to those around you. If someone compliments your boots, you should remember Jae’s story, talk about the foundation and, more importantly, ask them how they are doing. All proceeds from the store go back into giving away more Jae boots.
Jason Vickery and Jae Foundation Executive Director Jamie Shetler address the crowd at the Jae Foundation’s 2024 auction dinner. Photo by David Cooper.
Stepping up for others
For three years, the foundation has hosted a spring auction to raise funds for operations, boot giveaways, Pinedale team building excursions and wellness information campaigns in Idaho and Wyoming. Public support has boomed at the event held in the CSI Expo Center, with $1.3 million raised in 2023 and more than 900 participants at the 2024 event.
The Vickreys said during the April auction that more than 1,800 high school seniors in Idaho and Wyoming were outfitted with Jae boots in the previous school year. The goal now is to give out 3,000 pairs in 2024-25 school year, and more may be possible with additional sponsorships.
“We target the seniors specifically making that transition toward graduation,” Erke said. “But we also task the kids with going back to the schools and impacting underclassmen with their boots. Then, by the end of the year, they transition into becoming adults and contributing to society a little differently.”
Linda "Nan" Arrossa, a licensed clinical counselor for Jae’s Place, works on-site at the Twin Falls foundation and with local groups to establish support resources for those struggling or at the end of their rope.
“I have quite a connection with the counseling community,” Arrossa said. “We have a lot of counselors locally, but we don't have availability. There's so much need right now. And so when an individual comes in, if I can't immediately hook them up, I try to work with them. Because with suicide, you have to get on it. I make sure I do something with them until we get them connected somewhere else.”
Arrossa works with many young people who come in for someone to talk with, and she finds just walking with them provides a healthy outlet. “They just talk and talk, where if I sit down with a high school kid [in an office setting], sometimes they’re pretty bashful.”
Arrossa also hosts a monthly group of suicide family survivors who meet outside for a campfire discussion, a tradition that was created at one of the Pinedale retreats.
“We just talked every night after our local groups there,” Arrossa said, “and then we decided we should take that back here.”
The gathering is now called the “Knew” Fire Group and meets each second Monday evening of the month at Jae’s Place.
The Jae Foundation 2024 auction brought together more than 900 participants across 16 states. Photo by David Cooper.
Making honesty a reality
The Jae Foundation and its team members work with other organizations around the state and region to spread information helping adults needing suicide prevention resources. This is especially common in the agricultural arena for farmers and ranchers facing significant financial, production and family pressures.
“We have loved having the opportunity to work with the ag community through community outreach presentations, sharing Jae’s Story, working with local ag students and also through presenting to the state FFA kids,” said Jae Foundation Executive Director Jamie Shetler. “We have also had the incredible opportunity of having some of our local dairies become Boot-Check Certified.”
Erke said when she attended a panel at Dairy West, an Idaho dairy promotion organization focused on promotion, sustainability and health, she saw how questions of depression and wellness were increasingly common among today’s producers.
“Most of the questions were like, ‘How do I break the generational curse? How do I break the generational [cowboy-up attitude]? How do I do that? I'm a young guy getting ready to take over my family's farm or my family's dairy. And I can't talk about my feelings because I might be viewed as weak by the people that I respect and love and who are giving me this livelihood. How do I break that?'
“You see it in the agricultural world all the time. The next generation really does want to break that stigma, but the fear of what repercussions will come from their elders who they love and respect is pretty strong. It's intimidating.”
Erke said it takes a commitment to begin dialogue, one she has experienced herself with family and friends. By giving youth and older family members the understanding that vulnerability can be shared, they’re more bonded and don’t have to go it alone.
“I just want to change [that isolation]. I want to help them to know how and that requires building conversation. Tough conversations are about being nimble, where we don't judge people who feel that way. And we try to support them.”
About Jae’s Place
Location: 1881 Pole Line Road E., Twin Falls, Idaho
Phone number: (208) 825-2669 (BOOT)
Jae's Place website
Next auction: April 26, 2025, at CSI Expo Center
