Something to note, as you are walking around the parks these days, in consideration of how the hell 2020 ended up looking like the beginning to a Wes Craven film. When you ask yourself “how is it that X isn’t better or why does Y not exist or how do we get Z over here” you can always just point back to how much we spend per $100,000 of property value on our parks.
Needless to say, it isn’t much — nowhere near enough — and as a result, the hard working folks at local Park Districts have to do a lot of picking and choosing, often times without the appropriate amount of staff to get everything done. So, essentially, it’s on all of us, and no one person in particular. That’s a fact.
To that end, one of the gems of the park district system in Champaign-Urbana is the Spalding Skate Park, used to an immense degree for over twenty years now, and despite the fact it was designed by a long boarder and not a skate boarder, it provides a lot of fun and challenging fun for a lot of different folks in town here.
But it’s usually sorta jacked up, because again: no money, no time, no resources.
One local skater decided to change what they could. They took some pieces in disrepair home, bought the lumber, put in the work, and returned it to the park in one day’s time.
I’ll keep them anonymous just because… yeah, let’s just keep their name out of it. They didn’t do this for a plaque, they did it because they can, and because they wanted to help. Check it out:
Now that right there is called pitchin’ in. It’s inspiring. Thanks “human being” who loves this community enough to do this type of work!