Community Rallies Together to Build Quilcene Skatepark, Empowering Youth and Fostering Creativity

News by Angela Downs

At Quilcene High School, 200 kids signed a petition asking for a skatepark in their area. After a series of well-attended community meetings with positive community involvement, the plans began to roll.

Kai Dakers, Assa Cliford and Brady McDonald came together as a grassroots community coalition to do something about this big task.

The Recreation Conservation Organization (RCO), which aims to balance the protection of natural resources with opportunities for outdoor recreation, requires three years of youth programming experience, a requirement the coalition lacked. But they had the passion.

McDonald approached the YMCA to lend their eighty years of youth programming experience to fulfill the requirements.

Together, the three developed partnerships with Wendy Bart with the YMCA, Matt Tyler with the Parks Department, and the Grindline Skatepark Inc., a skatepark design company hired with the initial $20,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act, received while the coalition partnered with StrongerTowns, a Port Townsend non-profit 501(c)3 organization.

“We bring expertise and experience to the table and are strong partners on the project,” said Bart. “But it's important that we preserve and lift up the voices of the volunteers.”

And it's not just the volunteers who have been putting heart and soul into the park’s development. A teen volunteer group has been talking with the executive branch at the YMCA, developing their communication and self-advocacy skills to fulfill the needs of their peers.

The small team of three and established partners have been successful in procuring all the funding needed for the park, and ranked second in the rubric evaluation by RCO for value and impact on the community. While Jefferson County is not in the position to act in the preliminary part of development, they support the park and do have the capacity to help after the build.

They heard the kids and are now in the homestretch. With the Cultural Resource review finished, they are waiting on approval from RCO for the next steps of county permitting, finalizing the design, and bid documents for general contractors.

With all the funds they need from a Washington State grant program called the Community Outdoor Athletic Facilities (COAF), they will have the green light to ‘move dirt’ for their wooded location off of 101 by the Quilcene Community Center. Everyone is shooting for construction to begin in the Fall with a short couple months turnaround.

“Skateparks are where people, especially young people, can go to be involved in positive physical activity, in safe intergenerational spaces,” Dakers said. “It is important to give kids access and help them get there.”

Skateboarding has the duality of being creative and physical. “It not only challenged me, but opened doors to other creative pursuits,” Dakers said. With the arrival of the new park, kids can have access to a positive physical outlet that does not require transportation and is free.

If you're a kid who doesn't fit into group sports or activities, it can be tough to find spaces that cater to your interests and help you explore your individuality. While cultivating individuality is essential in a young person's growth, intergenerational spaces are important to move against singularity.

“Skateboarders are involved in all walks of life and interests, and can support kids in resisting the social routing that happens,” Dakers said. “As a kid, it was important to meet adults that had different jobs than my parents and kids from outside my neighborhood. It strengthened my cultural understanding.”

The new park will also extend as an asset to the skate community at large. With many skaters traveling from park to park, Quilcene will be a unique and dynamic park for their lists, hosting passionate skate artists from around the state.

The volunteers are thankful for everyone who has helped them get to where they are. “It feels empowering to see a need in the community and make it happen,” Dakers said. “I encourage anyone in that position to take action. It’s cool what happens when people work together.”