My son likes skateboarding. He recently discovere rob dyrdek on fantasy factory (supervised) and his safe spot skate spot. He came to me this morning and said he wanted a skate park here. I told him it would be hard he would have to research and give a speech (which he did yesterday after asking the teacher if he could write a research paper on abe lincoln. He researched wrote and read it to his first grade class which is not in the curriculum. He is doing this by himself im just there to guide him in the right direction. I want to encourage him but worried if or when they say no he will be very upset. Any info advice comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanx everyone. I hope to make this a great life experience for him to teach him to always strive to achieve his goals. :) FYI IM NOT SURE BUT I THINK THE ROB DYRDEK FOUNDATION FUNDS THE PROJECT. I HAVE CONTACTED THEM TODAY AND JUST WAITING TO HEAR BACK FROM THEM.
It's always a great thing when kids dream big.
I had a PT gig selling ad space for a local publication here and I called on a skate shop. They told me they were in the process of trying to raise 8 MILLION dollars for a new skate park to be built in the area.
Hope he gets some wealthy partners!
this is great that your son is taking an active role in what he wants!!
I would have, no, I would ENCOURAGE him to contact Rob Dyredek through his website and tell him what he wants to do and he needs his support. I'm sure that Tony Hawk would help out as well.
Then help him get his presentation together - who would pay for it, where it could be located, how much it might cost and go to the town and county boards and pitch his idea to them.
Hey BD, your post, posted 3 times.
Anyway, here locally... a neighborhood has wanted a kids park for a long time. Now finally, they will be getting one.
The way they are managing to do it is, the whole neighborhood is funding it themselves, and via any "Sponsors" that want to contribute toward it by means of: money or man-power, or contractors contributing their time, or suppliers to provide the actual jungle-gyms, and any other donations that people can provide etc.
So, it is a community effort.
And, they have also created media coverage for themselves via the local TV news and in the local newspapers. In order to help "fund drive" for it.
And of course, they have had to ask the Government, if it can be built on the City & County's, land. Where they want it. And to get proper permitting for it, etc.
The thing is, a town park, depends on the budget of a city and county.
And if there are funds for it or not.
Wanting and getting are two different things. I'd say he should approach the department in your town that is in charge of parks and playgrounds. My town put in a skate park a few years ago and it was a group effort (still is) between the town and a group of teens who wanted the skate park. It's been very busy and successful.
I think that's awesome!
I would help him with his project by asking lots of questions, where should it be? Who would pay for it? How much would it cost? Once he gets his facts together he could take it to whoever manages your city parks and rec department.
What a great lesson in civics and local government! Sadly most towns don't have the money to fund a project like this, but you never know. Maybe he'll come up with some good fundraising ideas :)
We had a skate park in Augusta not that long ago and it closed. We don't even have skate shop here anymore . I'm not sure if they would bring it back, I'd find out where the other one was and see what kind of condition it's in. And see about revamping it if that's even possible rather than trying to build a new one.
It doesn't hurt to try.
How many others in the area are into skateboarding and would support the cause?
The more people the better.
Actually it looks like Augusta, Ga had a skate park and it closed (not sure when, maybe 2009?).
http://www.concretedisciples.com/skateparksdb/display_sta...
That might make it hard to get one opened again.
Call you city offices and find out if there is an alternative sports association in your town. Ours is over the skate park and the BMX track. They operate both of them, built and designed them too. They got all the donations, everything.
I can understand teaching him to reach for his dreams but at the same time I think it needs to be tempered with what is realistic. This is so much larger than a seven year old. Can he handle pouring his heart and soul into something only to be turned down?
I'm not trying to be a killjoy but there is a woman here in Pittsburgh trying to get a skatepark built in memory of her two grown sons that drowned. From reading the stories in the paper I gather tha it has been a lengthy and costly battle and the municipality still won't give approval. I'll attach a link to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's article. I'm sure there are plenty more if you searched the Post Gazette's website for "Dormont" and "Skatepark". http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/12068/1215189-55-0.stm
With lean government budgets you'd have to come up with funding proposals and sponsors.
While it might be a nice experience to give his presentation to your local council, I truly would not expect more than a pat on the head and would that be good enough for him?
After writing this I feel like Debbie Downer :-(
