Brattleboro Area Skatepark Is Coming will host a Winter Carnival event at the Boys and Girls Club on Sunday February 20 from 4 – 8 PM. This event will feature skateboarding competitions with prizes and giveaways including Tensor Trucks, CCS decks custom painted by Keepers of the Shred and Mt. Snow swag, professional photography of you pulling tricks provided by The In-Sight Photography Project, movies, and free food from Bruegger’s and beverages.

A $5 cover is requested to benefit BASIC. All contest enrollees must fill out the Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department Adult or Youth  Program Registration Forms at the links below:

Adult Program Registration

Youth Program Registration

BASIC will be sending out letters in the coming week to our community business leaders introducing our group and the skatepark initiative.  If you receive one of these mailings, please consider the one in five kids in our town that will use this park.  These are the kids that don’t make the teams, or don’t even bother trying out because they know they won’t make it.  So, let’s help them see that we support them by giving generously towards building what they tell us they want – a skatepark.

By the way, we have now surpassed the $15,000 dollar mark in our fund-raising efforts.  These dollars were collected in our skatepark cans, through sales of our “Skatepark-In-A-Box” and stainless steal coffee cups, and through personal pleas to generous organizations and individuals; including the VT Entergy employee’s golf fundraiser and the Windham County Bar Association.  Thanks for your support of this wonderful project.

Please find below a link that describes some of the pitfalls many skateparks have faced nationwide.  This article helps to articulate some of our concerns about building a park in the outskirts of town, treating meeting the needs of skaters as troublesome, and why building a park isn’t a simple inexpensive matter.

http://www.skatepark.org/park-development/vision/2010/12/how-skateparks-fail

BASIC would like to thank all the members of our community that came to the public forum held last night at the Green Street School.  Our impression was that we made some new friends, helped to address some of the issues and concerns that members of our community have, and came away with a couple of homework assignments.

We hope that this is just the beginning of a healthy relationship between BASIC and the community.

BASIC committee members Josh Steele, Spencer Crispe, and Dennis Wygmans attended the Windham County Youth Services Battle of the Bands last night (November 5).  Josh did a great job organizing the event, Spenser lead the crowd in a raucous chant of “Nowhere to legally skate in Brattleboro Sucks”, and Dennis collected some email addresses of supporters and some donations.

BASIC would like to thank those who generously donated towards building a skatepark, and especially would like to thank Youth Services for inviting us to be a part of this event.  We look forward to working with Youth Services to help bring a skatepark to Brattleboro.

Click to see larger.

Design by Adam Hubbard

Update: Below is a photo of what the new play structure could look like.

B.A.S.I.C. (Brattleboro Area Skatepark Is Coming) will be representin’ on the streets of Brattleboro this Friday when the monthly Gallery Walk takes place.

Look for us on the corner of Main and Elliot St. near Turn It Up! music shop. We’ll also have a special setup just down the street at Elliot St. Cafe — just like last month the Keepers of the Shred crew will be on hand. KOTS frontman Matthew Rink, Elliot St. Cafe’s house artist, will have hand-painted skate decks on display.

Swing by and say hi.

About Gallery Walk
Gallery Walk is hosted by the town of Brattleboro, VT, and local businesses on the first Friday of each month. From about 5 to 9pm, art galleries keep their doors open to display a new artist’s work. Area bars, restaurants and shops also showcase artwork on their walls during the walk. The event is free and open to the public. For more info, visit http://www.gallerywalk.org/

Following is a Letter to the Editor printed in the Brattleboro Reformer on March 6, 2010. We urge you to share your story about the need for a skatepark in Brattleboro by writing a letter to the editor and emailing it to news@reformer.com. Letters may also be mailed to Brattleboro Reformer, Attn: Letter Box, 62 Black Mountain Rd., Brattleboro, VT 05301. Visit the Reformer’s site for more info.

As an employee of Youth Services in Brattleboro (working with youth aged 16-21) and as the mother of two 18-year-olds and a 21-year-old, I can strongly attest to the need for convenient, accessible gathering places where youth people can engage in healthy activities in Windham County.

One of my sons drives more than two hours each way to a skateboarding park in New Hampshire because there are so few good locations available to skate in our area. He used to come to Brattleboro to skate, but since the town changed its skating laws, he no longer does anymore.

People complain about youth gathering in parking lots and storefronts, but the town has resisted developing more appealing locations for them to congregate.

The skateboard park (and the other renovations to the park where the skate site will be located) will be very positive for Brattleboro. Not only will it give youth a constructive place to meet and exercise, it should also be an economic asset to the town. Those youths who come to the park will be buying food, beverages, skating and protective equipment, music and more when they come into Brattleboro from surrounding towns.

I am very glad to know that there is a committee working on having a skateboard park built in Brattleboro. It will be a wonderful resource for youth and parents in the area… I hope that the community and the Selectboard will stand together to promote this positive opportunity for youth in Windham County.

Michelle Bos-Lun,
Westminster

Matty, Scotty and the Keepers of the Shred crew have a new plan to raise funds for the Brattleboro Area Skate Park. All they need is your old skate decks.

KOTS will be collecting old skate decks and using their crazy Monet-ninja skills to repaint them. They will then sell the one-of-a-kind refurbished decks with proceeds going to the skate park.

If you have an old deck that’s still in good condition, bring it to the Elliot St. Cafe anytime they’re open. And hey, maybe you can talk to Matty and get your same deck back, except with ill graphics.

Sample of KOTS graphics.