Time to Give Back

This Saturday, come to the park and bring a canned good or two (or three or more).  Let's show the community that we may be misfits, but we're misfits with hearts.

This is the first of many volunteer/giving opportunities that we are going to do.

From the press release:

For Immediate Release
December 12, 2011,
SkateLife Memphis, Cheapskates, local area businesses and churches join forces for 1st Annual Memphis Food Grind in Support of MIFA (Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association)

Memphis – Volunteer members of the local Skateboard advocacy group SkateLife Memphis along with Cheapskates Skateboard shop want to help restock MIFA’s pantry shelves this holiday season through their 1st annual SkateLife Memphis Food Grind to benefit MIFA.
The week long event kicks off at Dec 17th ,10am, at the newly constructed Memphis Skate Park in Tobey Park.

SkateLife Memphis Food Grind engages our youth within the communities they live to support MIFA’s efforts to continually feed 55,000 Memphians and families in crisis on an annual basis and especially during the holiday season.

During this weeklong effort to fight hunger in the Memphis area, individuals can drop off nonperishable food items at the following locations Dec 17th through Dec 23rd.

Memphis Skate Park – Tobey Park Dec 17th 10am-4pm One day only at this location
(Located directly behind the Memphis Board Of Education)
Cheapskates skateboard shop 1576 Getwell Rd Dec 17th – Dec 23rd
Greenlaw Community Center 190Mill Ave Dec 17th – Dec 23rd
Blues City Skates 569 S. Highland Dec 17th – Dec 23rd
Mid-Town Bikes Shop 517 S main Dec 17th – Dec 23rd
Advent Church 1879 N. Germantown Pkwy Dec 17th – Dec 23rd

SkateLife Memphis seeks to promote Memphis and the health of Memphians by serving as an advocate for public skate parks. We are passionate about skateboarding because it is a positive physical outlet needed for our youth and it's an activity that naturally forms friendships among participants coming from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. http://skatelifememphis.org/

Tobey article in Memphis Health and Fitness Magazine

Here are some excerpts from an article I wrote for Memphis Health and Fitness magazine.  To read the whole thing please locate a copy of the December issue of Memphis Health and Fitness. It is a free publication that can be found in businesses all across the city.

World Class:  The Opening of Tobey Skate Park

For years Memphis skateboarders had to search for a place to ride.  While skate parks popped up in other mid-south cities (like Oxford and Little Rock), Memphis skaters watched and waited.  Skaters took trips to other cities for the chance to ride public skate parks while backyard ramps, do it yourself spots and street skating around local businesses kept the scene alive for those who refused to give up...

...Finally, thanks to four years hard work by skateboarding advocate Aaron Shafer and others, Memphis skaters don’t have to wait any longer...  

...Local skaters even helped design the park.  Longtime Memphis skater and ramp design/construction aficionado Mike Lasiter helped Shafer redesign the “Shafe Run” after visiting the Venice, California public skate park.  Lasiter and Shafer saw where improvements could be made, drew up plans, and made them happen...

...As a father with two children that skate, Shafer understand that skateboarding can be a great bonding activity.  Skateboarding offers both a physical outlet and an opportunity for young people to set goals...

...In the words of elder “skatesman” Edward Pidgeon, “It is all about the tribe.”  Unfortunately, what Memphis always lacked was a public location for the community, young and old, to come together.  Now, the skateboarders finally have it.  And as a skater who has traveled the country to skate different parks, I can say that it is a wonderful thing to finally have a park to call home.