The Sheckler Foundation has chosen the Southside Skatepark Day Camp Program to be the recipient of one of ten grants awarded for 2019!
The Sheckler Foundation launched their Be the Change grant campaign for 2019. The grant award winning program was looking to connect with groups effecting positive change in young people. Having run a skateboarding Day Camp program for the last 13 plus years Southside Skatepark hoped to earn their support.
When you Believe in Something as Passionately as We Do About Skateboarding, it’s Easy to Talk About the Positive Change it Can Bring to People.
We heard about the Be the Change program on the last day to submit entries. What was interesting was that at the time we were literally conducting our Spring Break Day Camp. After working the camp and skatepark 10am-9pm the video submission was shot in one take. When you believe in something as passionately as we do about skateboarding and how it effects people it’s easy to talk about. We offer Skateboarding Day Camps during Spring, Summer and Holiday Breaks. Having participated in those for so many years we have developed an understanding of the impact they can make. Usually the skateboarder enrolls in a camp and continues to attend, eventually developing their skills and confidence enough that they start learning on their own. At our skateboarding Day Camps our goal is to help them expand their understanding of skateboarding at whatever skill level they come to camp with. Once we develop those basic, intermediate and sometimes advanced skill sets they go on to be life long skateboarders.
Once We Help Them Develop Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Skill Sets They Go On to be Life Long Skateboarders.
This Process is a Perpetual and Never Ending which makes this Program so Unique
At first we Be the Change in small group format at the Southside Skatepark Day Camps. What’s so amazing is how they go on to Be the Change once they continue on in skateboarding. After attending our skateboarding Day Camps they develop an understanding of our skateboarding community. Often times feeling more a part of it than before they attended. That sense of being a part of something is the change in them that we witness. They go on to enjoy skateboarding and grow even deeper roots in our local and regional scene. As they get older they feel compelled to do for others what was done for them and the cycle of Be the Change continues. This process is perpetual and never ending which makes this program so unique, it literally never stops.
The $10,000 Grant Allows Southside Skatepark and Southside Skateshop to Scholarship 50 Skateboarder’s to Attend Our Day Camps!
Staff at Southside Skatepark and Southside Skateshop are going to be on the look out for skateboarder’s that we believe would like to attend, but are not financially able. We plan to approach them and their families in an appropriate way in hopes of awarding them a Southside Day Camp scholarship. Having been working at Southside for the last 13 years we know the signs and will be keeping an eye out. Our plan is to have three to five scholarships awarded per camp session throughout the year. This allows our skateboarding day camps to continue to be a similar size to what has been so impactful over the years. We really want to make the most of this amazing opportunity to expand our outreach and continue to Be the Change in our emerging skateboarding scene. Southside Skatepark would like to thank the Sheckler Foundation for their support in expanding our outreach to those that would have otherwise not been able to participate.
