West Seattle Skate Pride Week

One of the great things about skateboarding is how inclusive it is.  Skateboarding is typically where the kids who gravitate away from organized team sports end up.  But the uneducated often percieve the highly individual skaters as some sort of anti-social subculture that’s going to steal their lawn ornaments.  This week people in West Seattle are learning that this all-encompassing activity also includes the good Christian kids that make up the West Seattle Skate Church.

This group of activated Christian skaters stepped up and decorated the public art that flanks the end of the West Seattle Bridge with skateboards, T-shirts, and a banner that reads:  ‘Keep our Sidewalks Safe: Support Building Skateparks in West Seattle”.  This public display is definitely going to have the largest public impact of any local skatepark advocacy campaign since the skater march through downtown Seattle back in 2004.

While I’m not entirely down with the use of fear to motivate people (“Oh dear, build them a skatepark so I don’t get killed by a flying skateboard while walking on the sidewalk!”) these kids definitely have gotten the ball rolling in their own way in an effort toward getting a skatepark built in their neighborhood.  According to a press release sent out yesterday by Skate Church pastor Serena Wastman, they are hosting the skate area this year at the West Seattle Summerfest, and will be marching in the West Seattle Hi-Yu parade on July 19th, along with you if you’d like to join them.  Simply stop by the non-profit Torn skate shop on California to say hi, and sign up.

Congrats to the Skate Church kids on getting the job done, and helping to make things better for all skaters.