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All Skate! It’s the 70s in the new 20s!
By Chris Murphy Get your rainbow suspenders out, get your glitter as COVID has helped bring back roller skating. In all seriousness, there are many people that skating has never left their lives and Modesto’s Roller King lives on in so many Facebook groups, but roller skating is really coming back and there are some people here in town that are really celebrating this renaissance. First off, skating is fun. Second, it is a great family sport. Third, this is something that we need to keep making more popular. Fourth, we need more places where youth and families can have fun. We all need to get out and about more, and as we work though COVID, outdoor exercising with proper distancing is really important to your mental and physical well being. This month, our cover girl and skating star Tasha Wilson is showcasing local skating and Brian
Cromwell who is leading one of the local groups to bring our skating back What else can we do? There are some spaces on town that would make a great outdoor skating rink. There are some spaces that and be modified, maybe filled with some good smooth concrete that would be a fun place to do this. One of these is a confluence of trails in East LaLoma Park. Are there other places that may work? For those of you getting your skate on, please post your skate pics and videos and make sure to tag #modestoview and we will share them. On a related issue, there is a new Skate Park is coming to Cesar Chavez park. There is a huge renovation to this park that was announced last year and the designs are coming to life. One of the main features is a new skate park. There are already designs in the works based on community feedback. We need good community areas for people of all ages to have some fun. The next community meeting will be on February 25 so don’t miss out. https://www.modestogov.com/2619/ Chavez-Park-Renovation-Project
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Roller Skating is Back By Tasha Wilson
Roller skating is back, and it is right on time! Why? Well, because face it Positive Peeps, 2020 WAS A LOT! At the forefront is Covid-19. This disease has affected an unfathomable number of human beings globally, and here within Stanislaus County, many have been hit hard. During 2020, there were so many political disagreements and civil unrest. I sometimes found myself wondering how the world was ever going to make it to 2021. However, thankfully, there is an upside to every down. We see sunshine after every storm, faces smiles soon after tears dry, and eventually, every broken heart heals! 2020 just made us stronger! We must also remember that 2020 was not all bad. It gave us the chance to focus on our family. Plus, I am happy to share that skating has “rolled” over, (pun intended), from the tail end of 2020. With it, brought an amazingly talented, jam skater who goes by the name of Brian Cromwell. Brian is well-known in the roller-skating community and his love of skating reaches way back to the Roller King days of his childhood. The fire Brian has for roller skating has never burned out and for that reason, he came up with an idea to gather a bunch of roller skaters together, once a week, for an outdoor skate night. All of his roller-skating events are free! On some nights, there is a deejay, and when the deejay cannot attend, Brian wears the deejay hat as well. His skate group is called “Modesto Skates” and during the beginning of the pandemic, (as you can see from the photo), the group was fairly small. Today, there are more than eleven hundred online members! Roller skating is just fun! It allows everyone to come together and enjoy the outdoors and fresh air while spending time with friends and family, (even dur-
ing California’s Shelter-In-Place order)! Brian Cromwell earned many medals during the years he was a roller-skater at Modesto’s beloved Roller King. Years later, the rink has come and gone, but the love Brian has for roller skating has never wavered. Roller-skating is in his bones and he plans to continue growing his skate group. Soon, it will be one of the largest skate groups in the state of California!
If you would like further information, please send a join request to the “Modesto Skate” Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/4674800462560441
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