Home News Local News Kids flock to Greenport Skate Park Festival, enjoy spruced up facility

Kids flock to Greenport Skate Park Festival, enjoy spruced up facility

The efforts of young people to revamp the skate park in Greenport paid off big time Sunday at the annual Skate Park Festival, which drew many happy kids and families.

“It is truly amazing to watch as the future of Greenport come together on a project. This event is a ‘home grown effort,'” said Trustee Mary Bess Phillips. “To observe the re-creation of the thrill this skateboarding group had as young users of this facility being re-created for another generation of youth is a true example of hometown pride.”

Mayor David Nyce agreed, commending the efforts of two skaters, Beau Pollock, 21, and Andrew Semon, who worked tirelessly to bring the project to fruition.

“They came to us and told us they wanted to make this happen,” Nyce said. “”It’s cool to see young people want to take over this festival. In the past, they’ve had their ideas of bands, and how the contest should go. It’s neat to see. That’s what was supposed to come out of this. It’s nice to see it grow into that.”

Pollock said he was thrilled to see the repaved park, and to know that the village was willing to work together with them to give the facility a makeover.

Semon agreed. “This is just great,” he said. “Look at all the kids that are here.”

The entire park, said Trustee George Hubbard, was finished just in time for the Greenport Skate Park festival, which took on Sunday on Moores Lane.

This year, the event was more of a “family day,” Hubbard said. “Not a true competition.” Instead, lessons were given by older kids to younger skaters, with a full lineup of bands performing.

The event also included food, raffles and giveaways for best trick, most creative trick, highest ollie, best trick on transition, best flatground trick, a game of skate and more.

The event and food were free, with donation jars set up.

With an eye toward cleaning up the park, one jump that was not often used and has deteriorated was revamped; the hand rails were removed and used to make something smaller for a skateboard, Hubbard said.

Pollack, who said he’s been coming to the park said he was five years old, is a Greenport “local.”

Putting so much time into a park that means so much to him and his friends “feels good,” Pollock said, adding that the work was a labor of love. “The park needed maintenance,” he said.

The new improvements, he said, will go a long way toward young people’s enjoyment of the facility. “I’ve always had a good time here. My friends and I have always had a blast, and we still utilize this place every day,” he said. “I was just rolling around on the new asphalt myself — it’s awesome.”

Skateboarding at the park, he said, has shaped the young man he’s become, Pollock said. “Skating turns me into a completely different person,” he said. “It’s awesome. It keeps me out of trouble.”

A sponsored skateboarder, Pollock gets new gear every month to promote.

Skateboarding, he said, never gets old. “It always makes me giggle, learning how to do a new trick,” he said.

Both Hubbard and Pollock thanked all the local businesses, as well as the Greenport Fire Department and Peconic Landing, for donations that made the event possible.

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