By Tom O’Conner
On Saturday, July 23, the Kearny Skatepark Project team held the first skatepark fundraising event. The skatepark project started last December 2021 to see if there was any interest and there was…even from the parents! The team has its eye on a Tony Hawks Foundation (now known as the Skatepark) Grant to help the town get there. The Kearny Elks are stepping up with interest in supporting a grant for the skatepark too and have a few Skater patrons who just may show Kearny young skaters how to do it, not per skate team leader Logan!
The team asked the Kearny seniors for help and they did a knockout job of selling raffle tickets, donuts and shirts to start the wheel rolling. The skate team also used the Kearny Library as Ground Zero because Skatepark Kids love libraries!
Mooseknuckle Printing designed the Kearny Skatepark logo, a website to sell skate shirts and on standby for more great “local” product in the future. The team is thinking tech deck stickers, hot looking stickers from our local business, hats and more.
The Casa Grande Skate Shop donated top of the line trendy skateboards, gift certificates and a check with a thumbs up by the Kearny skaters. Cowtown skates in Tempe donated a top-of-the-line skateboard, shirt and their logo stickers! The Kearny skate team picked up both a scooter and a skateboard as raffle ticket giveaways from donations.
Event day was a blast watching the 50/50 carpetball tournament fundraiser and local birthday skater Cyrus won the pot! The team invited a local artist, QUENTIN CAMACHO, who has a knack for tuning in to what skaters like to see on canvas and commanded quite an audience of admirers! This new Kearny Youth Center art piece will be hung soon and suggestions made about auctioning the piece at a future skatepark event will be considered!
The skate team continues to move forward and have now submitted the first step of the grant process depicting community input, community desire for a skatepark and most importantly community involvement and town buy-in evidence.
Lastly, a Big Thank You to the Kearny Town and Library staff, Seniors and our supporters! Kearny wants a skate park!
