Who would have thought establishing a skateboard park for the youth of Chase would be such an ordeal?
Since 1995, two prolonged attempts have failed – but the dedicated committee has carried on.
Now it’s 2013, and funds have been raised to draft the blueprints, but still at issue is informing, educating and obtaining the support of our community. If we value our seniors and other groups that have their own facilities, why not value our youth, too?
Growing up in Edmonton, winters were long, cold and invariably dark. I lived in a neighbourhood with a ball park (more of a large empty lot) that my dad would flood so the community kids could skate. One grey afternoon walking home from school, I passed the lot, normally covered with bumpy ice and shovelled snow. But there, in place of the makeshift rink, was a skating rink with boards and streetlights so we could skate in the winter’s darkness.
I didn’t care who financed or built it, I was just happy it was there. Hours were spent at that rink. I realize now, there had to have been some committee working with municipal government to build it, much like Chase’s skatepark committee.
There are many kids who similarly don’t care how the skatepark gets built, only that it does. Let it be a symbol of not only what we think of today’s generation but how we valued our own childhoods. Think about those places that you enjoyed, that still resonate with advancing age.
In the upcoming months, the committee will continue to address the public. If the proposed site is in your neighborhood, relax and support it. Perhaps one day you’ll walk by it and take satisfaction that we have some happy and active kids, and the park worked out well.
Linda Fortier
St. Andrew’s Church
