NON-PROFIT SPOTLIGHT
Kevin Peare Memorial Skate Park An update from the Skate Park Committee The Kevin Peare Memorial Skate Park committee has been raising funds to build a free skate park for nearly four years in the Mt. Washington Valley. The skate park will be in memory of Kevin Peare, a Conway, New Hampshire native who passed away unexpectedly in 2017. Kevin’s love of skateboarding and teaching it to anyone who wanted to learn
An estimated groundbreaking for the skate park will be June 2023. The skate park will be a state-of-the-art concrete skateboarding park, between 8,000 to 10,000 square feet (or a 1/4 acre). It will be free to the public and be owned by the town of Conway. The group will stay on to oversee maintenance. spearheaded the direction of the project. It was his dream to have a skate park in his hometown and a safe place to practice the sport. After Kevin’s passing, his older sister, Caren Peare, reached out to the Tony Hawk Foundation (now The Skate
Project). The Skate Project seeks to foster lasting improvements in society through the development of free, quality public skateparks in low-income communities throughout the country. The Skate Project director, Alec Beck, has been guiding the group on how to build a skate park since that time. Along with Kevin’s mother Anna and sister Caren, Erin Russell has been there since the beginning. They have worked tirelessly to keep the organization’s vision on track. Four years later, there continues to be a solid group of volunteers keeping the vision of a skate park on the horizon. The group met with town officials with a proposal for a skate park to be built in the Mt. Washington Valley. It was brought in front of the selectmen and voted on unanimously. The selectmen voted to build the skate park off the new recreation path that runs from Cranmore Mountain to the cul de sac behind Walmart in North Conway off Hemlock Lane. This land was taken by the state of N.H. to build the proposed bypass in the 1990s; now the land is being returned to the town because the bypass is no longer happening. A professional skate park designer and builder have been chosen. Kevin’s sister and mother chose a design that closely resembles Tetuán Skate Park in Madrid, Spain. Nicole Licari Robertson from Pillar Design Studios personally visited the park in Spain and is designing it. Artisan Skate Park Builders was recommended by the Tony Hawk Foundation and will be working with town engineer, Paul DegliAngeli. According to him, as of July 2021, an estimated groundbreaking for the skate park will be June 2023. The skate park will be a state-of-the-art concrete skateboarding park, between 8,000 to 10,000 square feet (or a 1/4 acre). It will be free to the public and be owned by the town of Conway. The group will stay on to oversee maintenance. They have created an after-school program curriculum, “Skateboarding 101,” working with Project Succeed. The children are taught safety first. Then they are taught to build a skateboard, then finally learn to ride it. They leave the program with the skateboard they built. This will be something the group will continue once the skatepark has been built. They also are planning on offering classes and
summer programs or camps. In other news, the group has now become their own non-profit 501(3) C. They have raised $60,000 by grassroots fundraising and donations by holding family-friendly and affordable fundraisers. Each January they have The Skateboard Art Show at the Conway Public Library; once a year they have The Battle of the Bands and The Wicked Rides Car Show, to name a few. They sell merchandise such as tee shirts, hoodies, ball caps, and stickers on their website—and they have donation cans in businesses around the Valley. To learn more about the fundraisers going on or to donate, you can go visit the website: www.goskate4kev.com. Tax-deductible donations can be sent to: The Kevin Peare Memorial Skate Park P.O. Box 210, Conway, NH 03818 (603) 986-6436 Email: Goskate4kev@aol.com Alec Beck Programs Manager Tony Hawk Foundation
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