SKATERS GONNA SKATE / A REAL MOTHER GOOSE / RIPPLES EFFECT / FULL STEAMBOAT AHEAD
Skaters Gonna Skate Skating centers have come and gone in Roseburg, but roller skating has remained a tradition in town for decades. Today, thanks to community support, Parkview Skating Center is here to stay. Story by Miki Markovich Photo by Thomas Boyd
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hat the Parkview Skating Center exists at all today is a tribute to the fundraising tenacity of two persistent roller-skating moms and the group of people who helped.
That it has been around for nearly 24 years testifies to their dedication. Diana Colby has been director of non-profit, community-owned Parkview since Day One. She is also the founder and president of Umpqua Valley Community Projects Inc., the corporation under which Roseburg’s skating center formally operates. Sandie Lucchesi, president of the skating center’s board of directors, relates how Colby and she got started. “We have had a skating rink in Douglas County for as long as I can remember and I’ve been here 42 years,” says Lucchesi. “There was the Buckaroo Barn. Another was on Diamond Lake Boulevard, and the last skating rink we had was on Stewart Parkway, and that’s now a physical therapy center.”
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Sandy Luchessi (L) and Diana Colby have been instrumental in keeping the wheels turning at Parkview Skating Center.
“It was when we returned from qualifying for nationals, we received notice that the building was being shut down,” says Lucchesi. “Then Diana came up with this idea to build a community meeting center that would never go away because it would be communityowned — not owned by an individual who could later sell it.” The big question was financial — where, and how, to find the money to make it happen. “There was a group of us, about 10 people, who would meet weekly to come up with ideas on how to raise the money to move forward,” Lucchesi recalls. The group, and individuals, sold candy bars and hot dogs, took vintage photos, conducted school fundraisers and operated popup car washes, among other endeavors. The group’s determination also caught the eye of Kenneth Ford, the late founder of Roseburg Forest Products, who wound up writing a personal check for $2 million to put fundraising efforts over the top – to say the least.
The latter location is where the two women met. Both had children who were competitive roller skaters. Colby, an avid skater herself since age 7, asked Lucchesi about having their respective kids — separated by just a year — skate together in competition.
“We have now been self-sustaining for 23 years,” says Colby. “The Ford Family Foundation helped us replace our inline skates a few years ago and recently awarded us a COVID-related $6,799 grant for emergency help.”
The pairing was successful, but nobody knew the Roseburg Skating Club — one of three rollerskating organizations in Oregon — would soon be without a home rink.
Roller skating has undergone several rebirths in popularity since the invention of the roller skate in 1735 in England. Inline skates introduced nearly a half-century ago revolutionized the sport and aided a resurgence in competitive speed skating.
UV SPRING 2021
