Union of Youth

The adult and skateboard crew were at it again this past Wednesday the 29th during the evening, loading near-completed ramps, boxes, a pyramid, and other skate essentials onto a long trailer to bring out to the new temporary skatepark location located next to Culver’s along highway 3. There’s still a little work to be done. The pyramid needs completion and some of the ramps need a little bracing underneath, but all in all we’re close. Once again we see how a community of adults and youth can come together for a common cause. Northfield could use a little more of this. More photos here.

This posted by Zach Pruitt from Healthy Community Initiative, originally found at http://northfieldhci.org/weblog/post/834/

If you heard hammers and electric screwdrivers at work on Pepper Ridge Knoll on Friday, you were listening to the sounds of a neighborhood coming together to help local youth.

Led by the amazing Jimi Brown, Mike Plank, and John Schad, neighbors on this street spent much of the day and night (and weekend!) helping to construct equipment for the temporary skate park. The adults worked side-by-side with local youth skaters. Neighbors even made food for the volunteers at work — including homemade cookies! It was a moment that made one proud to live in a town like Northfield.

The temporary park is set to open soon at Babcock Park (near Culver’s).

Many thanks to these fantastic volunteers — and to Jordan Taylor, who has been working with the youth this summer on this project!

Check out some photos of some of the awesome volunteers at work!

The Northfield Skateboard Coalition is the recipient of the Beef O’ Brady’s “Spirit Night” this Thursday the 12th of March. What does that mean? Come on down to Beef O’ Brady’s 4:00-8:00pm on the 12th, and the Coalition gets 20% of the sales. You must put your receipt in the designated bucket for the Coalition to receive the percentage. Beef O’ Brady’s is located at 2018 Jefferson Road about a mile north of Target. So come enjoy the great food and help out a great cause! See you there!

The Northfield Skateboard Coalition raised over $450 on Sunday the 1st at the Applebees pancake breakfast fundraiser. Dozens of community members attended the event, braving the early Sunday morning cold. The Coalition received 70% of the ticket money and made additional money from t-shirt sales and donations. The Skateboard Coalition has an upcoming fundraiser for the Beef O’ Brady’s spirit night on Thursday March 12th from 5-7pm.

The Northfield Skateboard Coalition will host a pancake breakfast this Sunday (March 1, 2009) from 8:00-9:30 a.m. at Applebee’s (2433 Highway 3 South). The breakfast will include all-you-can-eat pancakes, plus an order of eggs, sausage, and breakfast beverages.

Tickets are only $5 and can be purchased at the door — or from your favorite skateboarder!

The funds raised at the breakfast will go to support the Northfield Skateboard Coalition. This group of incredible young people has been working for nearly three years to raise money and public support for a skateboarding plaza in Northfield. To date, the youth have raised over $30,000 to go for the construction of a plaza.

Hope you can make it on Sunday to support this important grassroots youth effort! (Thanks Zach for the post)

About 10 members of the Skateboard Coalition went on their monthly field trip to a Minnesota skatepark, this time heading to 3rd Lair in Golden Valley. I wasn’t able to take many decent photos on account of my laziness and the darkness of the building. It was an exhausting time and many of the boarders left a little bruised up.

A group of 10 skateboarders went to the Northfield Park Board meeting on Tuesday the 10th hoping to get a better sense of how far along the process was for the new skatepark. The skatepark took up less of an agenda item than expected, but the process still seems to be moving along though some times it seems like boxing a glacier.

Over ten members of the Northfield Skateboard Coalition and a handful of allies attended Northfield’s Park Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday January 13th, in which Board members discussed recent recommendations to the future Ames Park, most notably the future aesthetic and layout of the future skatepark. The Coalition will be meeting with city planners later this week to talk about the future skatepark.

Skateboarders from the Northfield Skateboard Coalition skated at Renegade Skatepark as a reward for their high attendance during Wednesday meetings during the month of December 2008. I can’t recall the exact date, but it was between Christmas and New Years Day. Here is a link to the 20 photos that were taken. Audrey Hamann, an aspiring photographer was also present taking photos of her own, though those photos have not been posted.

The Skateboard Coalition still has numerous skateboards for sale of which the proceeds are to be used to recover the costs for their Christmas Sharing donation. Many of theses artistic boards were sold to purchase 16 brand new skateboards to the United Christmas Sharing program, run by the Northfield Community Action Center. The Christmas Sharing program provides holiday gifts to local youth from families who are struggling financially. We have NUMEROUS boards waiting to be hung on your wall. The boards are as follows:

If you would like to make a purchase of one of the boards, please contact Zach Pruitt at Healthy Community Initiative at 507.664.3524. Prices are below.

The first thumbnail of the giant mouth (#1 if you can read sideways) is $50 or best offer. The second and third thumbnail of the top row (skateboard #2) can be purchased for $100 or best offer. This is a front and back. Thumbnail four on the top row (skateboard #3) can be purchased for $80 or best offer. Row two of thumbnails shows a front, a back, and a closeup (skateboard #4) of the “gasmask” skateboard. This can be purchased for $60 or best offer. The first two thumbnails in the bottom row (skateboard #5) show the “woman in grip tape” skateboard. This can be purchased for $50 or best offer. The last thumbnails in the bottom row are of the “representative journalism” skateboard which can be purchased for $35 or best offer. Once again, please call 507.664.3524 if you would like to make a puchase.