With that connection in mind, word quickly spread and the support rang out for the next skate park fund raiser, the all day (10 am to 5 pm) open skating and skateboard competition at Newtown High School this coming Saturday, the 13th, co-sponsored by Ski Market Underground of Danbury and Rampage residential and commercial skate park equipment of Bridgeport. There will be plenty of music to supply the background, while everyone is invited to try out the great equipment from Rampage just for fun, or to compete for awesome prizes from Ski Market. The competition will be broken into groups based on skill level. Just $5 for the open skating or $10 for the competition entry, with the sponsors giving all proceeds to the skate park fund.

Just about a year and half has passed since Park and Rec challenged the community to respond to the notion of creating a skate park, resulting in the parent-student group, the Newtown Skate Park Association. Our third fundraising event is about to start, and it looks like the momentum is really picking up. We owe thanks to many: to the Newtown Park and Rec, its Director Barbara Kasbarian and several of its board members, including Larry Haskel, Ed Marks, and Jack Ryan; to Amy Mangold, Roseanne Reggianno, Bonnie Willie, and all the staff at the Teen Center; to the parents and members of the bands that played last Friday: The Stand’s Kel Bowers, Nick and Morgan Luzzi and Sean O’Connell and Analog Enemy’s Farley Miller, Nick Isles, Ben Roche, Chris Strait, and Marcus Shultz; to Newtown Youth Services and Jeff Tolson and the Peer Leadership students at the High School, for past and continuing support.

Most importantly, we owe thanks to the youth of this town for showing their passion and commitment. These kids desperately need local access to a facility and are showing their support towards this cause; they’re making an investment in their own future. Moreover, some of the volunteers are senior high and college students; these people will likely never be direct users of an eventual Newtown skate park, they are demonstrating a civic gratitude, they are providing an example by giving back into the community. This may be a lesson to us all, and we should be most proud of these young men and women.

Thanks!

Ken Gottschalck

Newtown Skate Park Association

18 Russett Road, Sandy Hook                             September 8, 2003