New way to donate - AND have an awesome meal - Carlsbad's Paradise Pizza

Go into Carlsbad's Paradise Pizza, 2564 State Street, #F, Carlsbad, CA 92008, 760-845-1716
and mention the Skate Museum and Mychal Dourson, the owner (and skater- seriously, he just skated to my office!) will donate 10% of your order to the Skate Museum Fund!!! How's that for support.

I sense that we'll see a whole lot more restaurants coming on board to do the same in the near future!

Meeting update from 3/18

We can't stress enough how important it is for everyone to lend their voices to this project. We had a smaller group at the meeting last night, but we've got a lot of ways that people can help out even if they aren't in the area. Keep reading for details of the meeting and how you can get involved...

Some of the project details that we covered included:

• securing transportation routes to/from the park that are safe for skateboarders
• possibly renting out space to a skate shop to have trucks, wheels, etc. on site
• there WILL be security at the park, but not to police the skaters

We had several questions asked at last night's meeting that we look forward to confirming before the next meeting:

• what will the museum entry fee be?
• will there be different rates for residents/non-residents to skate the park?
• should helmets and pads or just helmets be mandatory?

One of most important aspects of the upcoming proposal is to show City Council that the community supports it. If you or anyone you know is a Carlsbad business owner, group organizer, church leader, PTA member, etc., ask them to write a letter in support of the project! Letters can be mailed to the CVA office or emailed to robin@shopcarlsbadvillage.org or CarlsbadSkate@gmail.com.

If you haven't already, make sure you sign the online petition! We want to get as many signatures as possible and this is a great way to let those out-of-towners show their support for the project: http://www.petitiononline.com/cbadskte/petition.html

There is a PayPal account where people can make a tax deductible donation to the non-profit project. If we can get everyone to donate $5, $25 or even $100, we'll be able to solidify the presentation for City Council without a problem.

Carlsbad Village's ArtWalk is next Thursday so the next meeting will be April 1 at 6pm. See you there!

Updates from meeting on March 11

We had the largest turn out yet at last night's meeting! More than 30 people came out to support a future Carlsbad Village Skateboarding Museum and Action Arts Center. Let's keep the momentum going and get more people involved every week!

If you haven't already, become a fan of the museum on Facebook and follow the updates posted on the CarlsbadSkate Twitter. Tell all your friends to join as well!

In other news, skateboarding legends have been posting memories and photos from the original Carlsbad skatepark built in the 70s on the Facebook page. Get behind this project so today's youth can create those same memories that will last for years to come!

A photo from the first day Carlsbad Skate Park was ridden by Lance Smith, Gary Coccaro and John O'Malley. (courtesy of John O'Malley)

Skateboarder Bob Staton remembers: "I was the first in line on opening day, the first paying customer into the big bowl. I went left around the wall, the guy behind me went right around the wall. We hooked up head on in the middle and became the first accident in skate park history."

As more people get behind the project and share their memories, we're sure to hear more gems like this. Tell everyone you know about the Carlsbad Village Skateboarding Museum and Action Arts Center!

"It's not just for skateboarders, it's for artists too. This is to encompass the whole culture of skateboarding." - Justin Jachura

Skateboard museum fans look to council

CARLSBAD — Advocates for the Carlsbad Skateboarding Museum and Action Art Center are making plenty of progress on their proposal as they continue to receive support for the project.

Since the Carlsbad Village Association, or CVA, announced the proposed center, they have received pledges of support from a range of people willing to throw their weight behind the project. The proposal includes a skate park, skateboarding museum, an education center and an interactive arts facility that must be approved by City Council.

“It’s not going to be an easy fight, but that’s why I’m here,” said local skateboarding legend John Hughes, who helped hand finish the first Carlsbad skate park in the 1970s, at the March 4 meeting about the museum.

Robin Young, executive director of the CVA and the driving force behind the project, has been working closely with the Tony Hawk Foundation to learn everything there is to know about opening a skate park. Young is also collaborating with Mike McIntyre of ACTION Sport Development to create renderings for the park that will potentially be housed at Carlsbad’s Oak Street maintenance yard.

“The plan is for the city to hopefully rent the land to the organization for a small fee so that the CVA can use their resources to fund the facility,” Young said.

Project supporters strongly believe that this project will be a great addition to the community because of the positive impact it will have on Carlsbad’s youth. The center incorporates aspects of skateboarding that will draw kids of all ages and could help them see a career path into the skateboarding industry, Young said.

“We have the ability to let kids be creative and I think that is something that outdoes anything else,” City Council candidate Jon Wantz said.

As Young puts the finishing touches on the project proposal, McIntyre will finalize the site map and renderings for the park to be shown to City Council. Young is expecting to deliver the proposal at a city council meeting as early as mid-March.

“We have to remain 100 percent positive,” Wantz said. “A lot of things are changing in Carlsbad.”

Other project advocates will continue to focus on spreading the word and gathering support from Carlsbad Village merchants, skateboarders and the community. The museum already has a large following on Facebook and Twitter.

“People will do anything for kids,” said Hughes, citing a number of other area skateboarders that would be interested in helping the project. “You’ll find people will come out of the woodwork for them.”

Follow along with the proposed skateboarding museum’s progress on their official blog at cvskatemuseum.blogspot.com.

Follow Us on Twitter and Facebook

On Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/CarlsbadSkate

On Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carlsbad-CA/Carlsbad-Skatepark-Museum-and-Action-Arts-Center/335673472461?v=wall&ref=ts

Meeting time set

Okay everyone. SkateBoarding Museum and Action Art Center, super supporter, Justin Jachura has offered his restaurant Senor Grubby's as our permanent meeting place for commitee meetings. Going forward; we will meet every Thursday night (except the last Thursday of the month) beginning at 5:30 pm in the back room of Senor Grubby's.

At our next meeting, we will be discussing how to gain community support, dispel myths about violence, drug use and gang activity at skate parks.

I'll also have an updated proposal for the city and an update on my meeting with Mike McIntyre.

Hope to see you at Senor Grubby's Thursday Night! 377 Carlsbad Village Drive

The project continues to gain momentum

Last week was a very good week. The feature article in The Coast News by Alyx Sariol (see below) appeared on the internet on Tuesday and calls began coming in to the CVA office. More support from the skateboarding business community than I had even hoped for came.

Wednesday afternoon, I got a call from Desiree Astorga, local artist-photographer-journalist-skateboarder- curator-fundraiser (I adore multi-hyphenated people) and we had a great talk about the project and her involvement in it. We've found a great partner in her for this project and I am really excited to have her on board.

One of the things we most needed was renderings of the site and I wasn't sure to begin. As I was inundated with Thursdays on the Coast duties, I hadn't really had time to research who to call. Thursday afternoon I received a call from Mike McIntyre, President, RLA, ACTION Sport Development, LLC.  offering his services and massive knowledge to help us with site mapping and renderings. Talk about getting exactly what you asked for...this was like the universe opening up and raining down million dollar checks! We're meeting next week to go over the site and proposal as it stands and Mike's going to help us get it ready for the masses. This is exciting stuff!

On Friday, I received yet another call from TransWorld Magazine who interviewed me for a news wire they were putting together on the project. We've gone global!

I grew up in an era when my sports heroes were baseball and football stars. As I grew up I saw these sports deteriorate as they became driven by money and sponsorship dollars. I cringed the first time I heard a professional athlete who earned upwards of 20 million dollars a year charge a kid $20 for an autograph or refuse a kid because he didn't have the right trading card or the right ball. I've seen the light of a small child's face go from bright to sullen and defeated in one lousy sentence. I've heard professional athletes say on national TV "I'm not a role-model." (Sorry, honey you are, and for your multi-million dollar contract, you better start acting like it).

What I've seen and heard from the Skateboarding community over and over again over the last month is, "I want to give back." "It's all about the kids." My faith is restored in the ideal that professional athletes do take their gifts and talents and share them with an open heart with the community and they do it for future generations. I've been really impressed and it's made me even more resolved in working to make this project a reality. Please get involved and help us pull together the people and the money that will make this dream a reality.