At a young age I was encouraged to take skills I developed from my passion and apply it to other areas in my life. I spend most nights skating for hours across the city exploring and meeting with others that are passionate about skating. I literally applied what I learned from my favorite childhood past time to my community “longboarding for kids” ( A 3,000 mile skate trip to raise funds for the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound).
I came home and applied what I learned from skateboarding & longboarding to my Education at the University of Washington Tacoma, perusing a Master’s degree in Skateboarding within the IAS department. My research was focused on understanding conflict between Dominant Culture & Sub-Culture (skateboarding) in Urban Spaces.
I often failed miserably in the early stages of my research, applying theories from philosophers who I could hardly grasp (especially Michel Foucault) to a frame work analyzing conflict in urban spaces. The research process felt like my first time standing on a board, picking up speed, crashing, then getting picked up and advised to try again by Dr. Ingrid Walker & Dr. Stephen. Eventually I finished, I put together a thesis with a strong argument and applicable to the development of skateboarding culture in the Tacoma area.
When I finished my Thesis, using it to bring together a group of my friends to attempt to legalize skateboarding as a mode of transportation in the City of Tacoma while throwing a large skate event in Downtown Tacoma’s Tollefson Plaza (1,500 in attendance). My Thesis Suggested that the innovative use of skateboarding can in fact build community by re-using empty spaces in the down town area in new ways, encouraging youth that they can and should practice their craft within the community.
Together my friends helped change a small part of the City for the better. Through the event we compiled information to further understand conflict with in sub-culture. The evidence showed that 56% of skateboarders in the Tacoma area between 18-24 are high school dropouts. For such a large community (estimated 8,000 skateboarders in Tacoma area in 2007), there is little support for education or mentorship in the greater Tacoma area.
Why are there so many dropouts? I would like to suggest the lack of mentorship and dry space for the skate culture. According to a 2004 Mentoring Report for Washington State, there are 240,000 youth in Washington who are at-risk and in need of mentoring from a caring adult. Only 20,000 (8%) - have mentors. For this reason a team of passionate skaters and youth coordinators in the Tacoma area are developing an indoor Skate Park & Education Center.
The skate Park is not my idea or Seth Ivers idea (skate camp director of 15 years), it is a collection of ideas from those citizens of the greater Tacoma area who wish to invest in at-risk-youth. They are ideas from Kids, Educators, Skate Camp Directors, Coaches, Mentors, Mothers, Fathers and even Police officers who want to reach out to youth by speaking to their passion, create a space to teach them to apply those skills to other areas in life (school, work and community service). For now I have simply written down the thoughts and now stand on the shoulders of those giants before me.
Alchemy Indoor skate Park & Education center will be run it as a non-profit organization with a focus on developing the marginalized skate community (10-17 & 18-24). We will offer members tutoring to complete their high school education or GED while providing them with ways to give back to their community through volunteer work. The park will highlight the ability to use or re-purpose unused city space in an innovative fashion as well as cultivate the local skate community.
-Indoor Skate Park
-Education Center
-Music Venue
We are planning on opening in the Down Town Tacoma area. We just acquired our non-profit status and EIN number. It will be about a year before we will have our 501c3 (allows us to receive in-kind donations and grants from foundations and private investors).
The team: http://www.alchemyindoor.com/team.html The next series of patch blogs will be mapping our experience in developing a non-profit Indoor Skate Park & Education Center. We will keep updates regularly and share the development of this non-profit with the community. https://www.facebook.com/AlchemyIndoorSkateParkEducationCenter?fref=ts