SES would like to thank Mike and Kate Coughlin for their generous $5,000 donation to the cause!!!

SES gives a hearty thanks to the downtown chapter of Rotary for formally pledging to raise at least $100,000 from it membership. This fundraising partnership has been in the works for many months and we couldn’t be more more appreciative to everyone who has worked so hard to get SES and Rotary together. Here is an excerpt from Rotary commitment letter to Emily at the Parks Dept:
As President of the Eugene Rotary Club, I write to confirm the Club’s commitment to the construction of the skatepark at the Washington-Jefferson Street Park. The Eugene Rotary Club successfully partnered with the city to develop the highly used River Play Park for young children. We look forward to partnering with the city and Skaters for Eugene Skateparks to help fund a new park project for the under-served older youth of our community. The Eugene Rotary Club, through its Board of Directors, has committed itself to an effort which will contribute a combination of cash, in-kind donations, and volunteer labor to this project totaling $80,000 to $100,000 in value. I know that you, on behalf of the City of Eugene Parks and Open Space Division, are aware of the importance of the need for this project to our community and will see this exciting project through to completion one way or another even if it requires a phased approach…Yours truly, Michael F. Fox

Check out these links to 3 versions of the Dreamland skatepark design. Like what you see? Want to change something? Want to add something? Join us on Tuesday, October 6th – click here for more details.

Design A
Design A – 3D view

Design B
Design B – 3D view

Design C
Design C – 3D view

Click here to take the survey about what you think!

This is it. Finally. This is your chance to have a say in what one of the few world class skateparks in the northwest will look like. Very few chances will come along like this again. DREAMLAND wants to hear from you. Click here to speak your mind. Oct. 6th is the next meeting with Dreamland. Click here for more details.

Ever since the Downtown Rotary chapter endorsed the W-J Skatepark in the summer of 2009, they have invited a new local skateboarder every week to join them for their regular lunch meetings. Below is a note written by Benson Ka’ai after he meet with the Rotarians on August 11th:

“Service Above Self” — This is the motto for Rotary International, a collection of more than 30,000 clubs worldwide whose members are volunteers working locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio. With more than 1.2 million members, known as Rotarians, Rotary International might be the most recognizable organization whose purpose you never fully understood.

Today, I had the unique honor to sit in on a Rotary Club meeting, a weekly occurrence where members get together for breakfast, lunch, or dinner to socialize as well as discuss weekly organizational goals. Socialize? Isn’t that what Facebook and Twitter is for? Maybe, but before we had these social networks, people got together in things called ‘conference rooms’ to talk face-to-face. Usually there’s food and drink, some announcements are made, a guest speaker presents, a little Q&A after the presentation, everyone claps, and the meeting is adjourned. Sounds like fun, right? Well, all sarcasm aside, it’s actually really interesting, educational, and a good time. I laughed … out loud even. LOL.

This week’s Eugene Rotary meeting highlights included guest speaker Heather Hutanen reflecting on her recent trip to the Netherlands as an Ambassadorial Scholar and what she learned about American culture while living abroad. Did you know in Holland that time spent with family is a cultural value, so much so that most businesses close at 5:00 p.m. and aren’t open on Sundays and Mondays specifically so citizens can be with their loved ones? Me neither, but it was very interesting to hear all about the Dutch culture from Heather.

Anyways, you’re probably wondering what the Rotary Club has to do with skateboarding and Tactics, right? Well, if you haven’t heard, Eugene is in the process of building a world-class skatepark and the city’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) has set aside $292,000 for the skatepark, but with a final goal of $500,000 by December 31st, 2009, it’s up to public organizations like the Skaters for Eugene Skateparks to raise the additional capital.

Here is where the Eugene Rotary Club comes in: Rotarian Lee White hopes his organization can provide $50,000 for the Washington-Jefferson skatepark project. Lee doesn’t skate. He doesn’t have kids who skate. He’s not in the industry, he’s just down for the cause. Service Above Self, that’s what Lee White and the Eugene Rotary Club are all about, and as a skater, I thank the Rotary Club for their support of Eugene skateboarding.

Thanks to the City of Eugene for putting together a great skate jam at Churchill skatepark on August 27th. They even raised a few bucks for the downtown skatepark!

Thanks to our friends at Sam Bond’s Garage for donating a portion of the proceeds from their cover charge on Sunday, August 23rd!

Sam Bond's Garage Benefit Show for the Skatepark!

Sunday, September 6th, Eugene is one of the three towns chosen for the LRG Skate Northwest Tour schedule! Autograph signing starts at 2:30 p.m. and the demo is at 3:30 p.m. Click here to see all the details.

On Monday, August 26th, a homeless man was killed in the W-J Park. On Tuesday, August 27th, SES received this inquiry from a local news agency: I’m a reporter with KVAL news. I was hoping to set up an interview today regarding the skate park under the Washington-Jefferson street bridge. Tuesday, a homeless was stabbed and killed there in broad daylight. I’m wondering if this changes your plans, or if you plan to go on with this project. Elissa Harrington, KVAL News. Jon Faulkner responded on behalf of SES in an on-camera interview that afternoon. That same day, this written reply was submitted:
—————————
Elissa,

I would be happy to respond to your questions.

In no way does this change the plans for the siting of the skatepark. In fact, on the night of the incident, just a few blocks away, the City of Eugene Parks and Open Space and Skaters for Eugene Skateparks hosted the first in a series of design workshop meetings with the recently chosen designer of the skatepark, world-renown Dreamland Skateparks. One of the participants at the meeting witnessed the crime on his way to the meeting and shared the sad news with us, but the meeting went on with the understanding that we were all envisioning a different future.

There are two choices for the Washington-Jefferson Park: 1) write it off, continue to neglect the area, and watch crime increase over time; or, 2) reclaim the space and replace negative use with positive use. This type of incident only further reinforces the need to provide a transformational centerpiece to the park that brings consistent, positive energy and users to the park. A world class, destination skatepark will bring this consistent, positive use and energy and will transform the entire neighborhood.

There are testimonials from across the nation and around the world about the positive impact building a skatepark can have on a neighborhood. Burnside skatepark in Portland is a perfect Oregon example of this transformation. The same type of activity that currently occurs in Washington-Jefferson Park occurred there before the skatepark was built. Redeveloping the park to bring a vibrant, busy, active, multi-age facility into the area will allow us to create a synergy of uses with family viewing areas, a renovated restroom, increased visibility from the street and direct vehicular access throughout the park. The enhancements will be combined with the community then rediscovering the existing basketball courts, stage, horseshoe pits, and walking paths and the dynamic of the area will completely change. With the skatepark being covered and lit, there will be very few occasions when the skatepark won’t be busy, if not packed, with locals and visitors. We believe the addition of the skatepark provides the perfect catalyst for the much needed revitalization of Washington-Jefferson Park.

I encourage you to take just a few minutes and read this page: http://www.skateeugene.org/myths-vs-reality.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions.

Best regards,
Bob Chandler
Skaters for Eugene Skateparks

Greetings to all,

Just a note: I was in Portland over the weekend and stopped by a skate park that is in front of Madison High School on 82nd Ave. This park was designed and created by Dreamland. It was in full use at the time that we were there at about six pm on Friday evening.

The most interesting thing about this park was that although there were a lot of people there, no one was loud. People only hooped it up if someone did something really cool. They had two bowls for skaters, along with a wide shallow area for beginners and some nice features for learning to grind, ride stairs and jump. One bowl was very deep with very steep sides. My guess is about 11 feet deep. These kids and young adults were skating up and around this bowl like it was childs play, (pun intended). Even when they crashed they were quiet and shook it off. And others would generally be encouraging and not negative. The park was getting a lot of use and you could see who was good and those that were still learning. The best part was that these kids were so respectful of each other. Everyone took turns and shared the space. One rider would take off; then when it was clear another would start to skate.

Suz and I hung around for about an hour and no one was disrespectful. At one point I went up to a young man that was around twelve or thirteen I asked him how long he had been skating and he said six years. Imagine that, he was only six or seven when he started to skateboard. This kid was just getting into the large deep bowl and you could tell that it was a bit intimidating for him. He was a very nice individual and although a bit shy he loves skating and spending time at the park.

If this is a snapshot of what we could be providing to the kids of Eugene it will be one of the best things that we could do for our youth. I was very impressed with the quality of the park and the whole “scene” (if that term is still used). We got to Suz’s sisters house and told them where we had been and they knew all about the skate park and its history. It has been there for about two years now and it was started in controversy. Parents were very upset and thought that this would be a bad thing for the school grounds and the adjoining park. After it was finished and opened up to the public, many mothers would work shifts watching over the park to ensure that nothing bad would start happening. Well they had worried for no reason. The result was as I described above. The mothers don’t even bother to monitor anymore.

My wife’s sister works for the library at the school and is there every day during the school year and said that there have not been any “bad incidents” at the park or the playground or school since it has been open.

That is a great testimony! Lets build this park!

- Bill Cole, Wheelworks