Today is a beautiful day for a couple reasons.

First- it is sunny and going to be in the 60's.

Second- our county is opening a public skate park for our kids! It is free, supervised, and will be a safe place for our youth to practice their sport! They must wear helmets, knee, and elbow pads.

It has been three years since our committee (grandparents, parents, and youth) has been trying to convince county officials to have such a park!

What an experience it has been. When we first starting meeting with the Director of Recreation and Parks (very nice man) he didn't want to hear what we had to say. Insurance was his big concern. We held meetings showing statistics that it is actually one of the safest sports, we had the insurance rep attend and speak at one of the meetings, showed studies, had statistics from other parks and insurance companies, and finally woke him up to the fact that insurance is a nothing!

Next, there was the issue of no money, no place to put it, NIMBY (not in my back yard!). We had all kinds of articles in the paper, many letters to the editor with people lashing out about anything you could imagine. Something for skaters...just imagine! But we were relentless.

We went to the county official with all the several skaters and their lacrosse sticks, baseball gloves, golf clubs, report cards, etc. just to prove that these kids are not skate rats. They are the same kids who use our county fields and gyms already.

We attended neighborhood association meetings, you name it. We weren't going away.

Meantime kids were getting citations for skating in the streets, on corners, near schools, etc. all because they didn't have a place to skate.

Slowly, very slowly we convinced them to get with the program. We met with the Director of Recs and Parks and had all the kids equipment set up in the room with ramps and rails, helmets, skates, boards, pads, magazines and library books about skating.

And finally, they gave in!

The good news is that the kids actually got to pick the equipment (ramps, boxes, rails, jersey walls, fun boxes, etc) and designed the park. The county officials decided they didn't know how to go about it. We had a gentleman who was a pro skater at one time, and is now the Hurley rep, on our committee and he was invaluable. He led the kids with the design and everyone is happy! ALL ages will be able to skate together in a safe atmosphere. Young and old!

It will be jam-packed. They will soon realize they need to start plunking these down in many parks around the county. Two more are scheduled to open this spring!

The absolute best part of this endeavor was that the kids saw first-hand what can happen when you believe in something and are willing to work and not give up. They saw how you have to work the system. They learned that the best way to go about it is with honesty and determination. We fought for it, but only with kindness and the bare facts!

And we WON!