Skaters in Statesville now have more than just a place to skate as the Statesville DIY Skatepark held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday.
“This is a place for others like me to come so they have a place to belong. This is community-based. This is our home,” said Christian Griffith, founder of the Live to Skate nonprofit. “You are welcome when you walk in here.”
Located at 720 S. Mulberry St., that home for skateboarders is a place where they can not only safely enjoy skateboarding, BMX, or anything else on wheels, but also a place where many of those involved want to become a community hub, especially when they don’t feel like they belong anywhere else.
“Me being here no more than 10 minutes and it already feels like home. That says something about the community nature of skateboarding” said Daniel Devlin, owner of Stardust skateshop in Mooresville.
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Live to Skate partnered with the Statesville Housing Authority to turn what had been a long-standing want for many in Statesville into a reality. SHA’s Donald Hicks explained to those gathered at the ribbon-cutting ceremony that Griffith had come to the organization nine years ago with the idea, but it wasn’t until the last year the pieces came together to convert the old Yokefellow Ministries building into a skatepark.
Much of the work was done by volunteers to clean the site and prepare it for the ramps, rails, and other obstacles to be installed. Street art was added to the wall of the building as well up until Friday night.
The park is a partnership with the SHA and the non-profit organization Live to Skate.
While plenty of the older skaters were showing off their years of experience trying to ride across a wall over a doorway in the interior of the skatepark, Jessica Scarlett was showing her son, William James Morgan, the fundamentals of skateboarding in another area designed for younger skaters.
Scarlett said she was more than excited to learn about the skatepark because she wished she would have had it when she was teaching herself to skate as a teenager in New Jersey.
“I was super excited to find out because we didn’t have this where I grew up,” Scarlett said. “We had to use courtyards, school stairs, park stairs and other resources to try to learn what you’re doing or you were on a street going up and down with cars passing you. … You were going to get hurt if you didn’t have a place to go,” Scarlett said.
Morgan said he was excited as well and hopes he can pull off some of the advanced tricks he saw the teenagers and adults doing — after he learns the basics.
That’s exactly what Griffith hoped for when the idea for the Statesville DIY Skatepark began.
“A safe place where my son and the next generation of skaters don’t have to deal with the harassment and mistreatment we had to deal with,” Griffith said. “It’s become a safe space where kids can come express themselves and be who they are and have fun. A judgment-free place.”
The skatepark was just one part of SHA’s opening of the David J. Meachem Culture, Arts, Sports, and Technology Campus which also was celebrated on Saturday. Along with the skatepark, the campus holds a basketball and pickleball court, a playground, a greenspace, and the SHA’s Arts and Cultural Center. An amphitheater is in the plans as well.