Skaters meet at court for their sport

A group consisting of over 20 skaters and several adult supporters of the development of a Saipan skatepark met at the Kilili Beach basketball court on Friday and not lost on the youngster was the sheer enormity of raising six-figures in a time of the economic downturn.

A week and a half ago a crowd of over 50 concerned citizens, skate boarders, and community leaders showed up to the Garapan Central Park Roundhouse to take part in the Rotary Club of Saipan’s fact finding forum on the construction of a skatepark.

Just like Friday’s meeting, skateboarding enthusiasts of all ages and races exchanged information regarding the acquisition of land, project designs, the formation of a non-profit group, and possible legal issues that stand in the way of the proposed facility.

This time around the organized group began to formulate their plan of attack to raise the remaining $110,000 needed for the project, and they had plenty of help.

The plans were so big that the skaters wrote their agenda and results of discussion on the pavement with sidewalk chalk and moved through their topics with the same enthusiasm they take when grinding rails and slamming down kick flips.

A sign-in sheet was circulated to help maintain communication throughout the process and the talk quickly shifted to the 800-lb. gorilla on the court—the task of raising $110,000.

“We discussed that there is a long way to go before we have enough money to actually build the skatepark. We asked the skaters to come up with fund raising ideas, and to become committed to this effort,” said Gayle Martin.

Among the ideas generated by the skaters were a skate/walkathon, donations, the formation of a school-based club to get funds, a skate-o-thon, and putting their skills on display for cash.

To help keep the current skaters on track, the boarding community nominated Kevin Sablan, Sean Santos, Jose Santiago, Ho Yeon Jang, Gabe Berger, and David Baker as the official “SK8R REPS” throughout the process.
Laurie Peterka then met with the six representatives and they brainstormed to develop a list of projects that the “sk8rs” can get to work on to bring about more public awareness to their plight.

The RCS already said that it has $20,000 to commit to the project leaving $110, 000 for the community to raise and representative Dela Cruz said that he would be working on a way to appropriate funds for the project as well when he attended the roundhouse session.