Katie May
LETHBRIDGE HERALD

Several Lethbridge residents woke up Sunday morning with lighter wallets and smaller bank account balances. And they were happy about it.

About 150 people came together to raise $ 14,500 for a new City skateboard park at the city's first Skate of the Art auction fundraiser Saturday night, pushing the proposed park a little closer to reality.

About 23 skateboard decks, custom-decorated by local artists, flew off the auctioneer's table and into the hands of Lethbridge skateboarders, politicians, business owners and supporters who were more than happy to meld Sports and arts with a little wine and cheese. A particularly in-demand deck went for $650 - the highest single bid of the night.

"It exceeded all of our expectations," said Renee Richards, LSA board of directors representative.

"We still have a lot of money that we need to raise, but to be able to raise $14,000 in one night is a huge amount of money, and to have all the support from the community last night is just as important as the money that we raised," she added. "It was incredible."

The Lethbridge Skateboarding Association (LSA) still has hundreds of thousands of dollars to raise for the new park, which is expected to cost between $550,000 to $600,000. The city has agreed to chip in $200,000 if the LSA can come up with the rest. If the organization gets its hoped-for grants, that leaves about $200,000 left to raise, according to Richards.

"We'd love to see a groundbreaking definitely before fall. We're working on a development permit and once we have the development permit hopefully we can muster more support from the community when they see lt's really happening and they want to be apart of it," she said, adding the LSA will wait until it has the permit in hand before announcing the chosen location of the new park.

Lethbridge's current skateboarding park, located on Stafford Drive North, was built about 12 years ago and has already been in need of repairs. The city's plan would see three additional multi-purpose skate parks built throughout the city, starting with the westside, within the next decade.

Lethbridge's first Skate of the Art fundraiser showed such a groundswell of support for the idea, Richards said, that organizers are already talking about bringing the event back next year.

"I'm not a skateboarder, but I see the merit in giving kids in our community somewhere to play. Especially with that age group. These aren't the six-year-olds who can still play on swings. These are 10-, 12-, 14-, 16-year-olds. Where do they go?" she said. "We're doing for kids what we wish somebody would've done for us when we were kids."

The article appears on page 10 of the online version, available here

By Erwin Blatter
For the Lethbridge Journal

It’s called Skate of the Art and it’s supposed to help raise up to $400,000. With that money, the Lethbridge Skateboard Association (LSA) hopes to build a new outdoor skate park in the city.

Some 25 local artists, hand-painted skateboard decks and the support of the community is what the upcoming Skate of the Art event is about. On April 14 these hand-painted skateboard decks will be sold during a live auction which starts at 7 p.m. at 619 4 Ave. S.

Peter Barry, president of the LSA, aims to raise somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000.

“The proceeds of the auction depend on the support of the community,” he says.

Barry admits the auction is just a small part of the whole undertaking. “Obviously, we’re also hoping for corporate dollars.”

If one thing’s clear, it’s that the LSA faces a big challenge. Although the city of Lethbridge has committed to funding as much as $200,000, a lot more money needs to be raised to build the desired outdoor skate park.

The cost of the park is estimated at somewhere between $500,000 and $600,000.

Still, Barry is convinced he and his co-initiators will be able to find all that money.

“Our goal is feasible, absolutely 100 per cent certain. If it takes us five years to raise the money it’s great, if it takes us five months it’s fantastic. We’re very positive about this. But we don’t take it lightly.”

According to Barry, the need for a new skate park in Lethbridge is big. The current one is more than a decade old and in a dilapidated state. During that last decade the population of Lethbridge grew 28 per cent. What’s more is that the sport grew in popularity.

“Ten years ago skateboarders were cast outs, now skateboarding is a mainstream sport,” says Barry. “According to the city’s own numbers, 12 per cent of our youth plays hockey and 10 per cent are skateboarders.”

Therefore, the LSA president is astounded that hockey gets all the facilities and funding in the city while the skateboarders mostly have to look after themselves.

“How many hockey rinks do we have in Lethbridge and how many skate parks,” he asks rhetorically.

The LSA has been working on having a new skate park developed for the past five years. Thus far, they have raised $230,151, including a huge anonymous gift of $125,000. Things are looking great for the LSA.

“We’re aiming at a spring build,” says Barry. “We’re confident that we’ll have the skate park ready before fall arrives.”

He doesn’t consider failing to raise enough money a possibility.

“I don’t like to think that way. If you put your mind to it, you can reach anything.”

Tickets for the Skate of the Art fundraiser are $35 each and can be purchased by visiting www.skateoftheart.ca