Fundraising efforts for a do-it-yourself skatepark at Emry are underway after Roanoke Rapids City Council recently gave the group the go-ahead to proceed.
On Tuesday a GoFundMe page was set up by Justin Kerr, who is representing a group of skating enthusiasts to convert at least two of the abandoned tennis courts at the park into a DIY facility focused on beginning skaters.
As of this report, the effort since Tuesday has raised $1,055 out of a goal of $70,000 — numbers that are encouraging to Kerr.
“It’s going really well. At the moment we’ve got $1,005 (the tally at the time of the interview this morning) which is way more than I expected in just the first two days of having the GoFundMe,” he said. “We’ve got $3,100 in hand in donations so far.”
The $3,100 has come from several businesses and non-profit organizations.
Kerr said with the early response to the GoFundMe campaign and the donations thus far, “It means I think people see my vision and dream of what we want for the community. I think everybody is together that they want something for the town.”
The $70,000 target will cover several aspects of the skatepark such as the current inoperable floodlights at the old tennis courts. “These lights aren’t going to stay,” he said.
Instead they will be replaced with two streetlights that will come on from dusk to dawn “so we won’t be running these high-powered flood lights out there every night, which are not working anyway.”
The fence is coming down. “The plan is that if we can get this done we’ll be able to go back to the city and say, ‘We want a fence and getting a fence up shouldn’t be a problem.’ The hope is if the citizens take this initiative and do this part of the park, the city will see the need for it and take the initiative to fix the rest of the park.”
The $70,000 also includes the demolition and the pouring of the concrete. “Hopefully we can get citizen help and rip the concrete up ourselves.”
Kerr attended this week’s Halifax County Business Horizons meeting where he learned of possible funding through the Halifax County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
That meeting went well, he said, and he had the chance to speak to several industry and business leaders about the project. “Hopefully we’re going to have a few more sponsors to help come on board.”
Another company, he said, is willing to come on board with the physical labor that will be needed for aspects of the project as well as monetary donations “to do what we need to do to get Emry Park back to a nice park where people want to go.”
The vision is to have a good multi-use complex, Kerr said. “We’ve got an area for picnics, you’ve got the playset for the kids, the swings, the ballfield, the walking trail. Everything’s here already. You’re just making it a more desirable place — making it pretty, making it look good again.”
While the project is currently set for two of the abandoned courts, which Kerr said is adequate, the group still has big dreams. “If we could do half that would be great because that way it would give us more space. The more space you’ve got, the more multi-use it could be — for rollerblading, scooters, bicycles.”
Kerr feels confident the group will hit the mark with its fundraising effort. “There’s a few other grants out there,” such as one from Truist, in which organizers have to be 60 percent of the way to their goal in a grassroots effort. “I think we’ve got the grassroots effort covered so that’s an option. We’re keeping our eyes open for all options so that if we don’t make it to the mark, we’re going to find something to help fill the gap.”
Kerr believes the interest in this project comes from people who remember coming to the park when they were children “and what a great place it was, how much fun they had here. They want to see the city come back to that. It’s just not about skateboarding, it’s about taking our city back and making it a place that’s worthwhile visiting and having things for you and your family to do together.
“I don’t want this to be just me and my friends and a couple of 20-30-year-old guys skateboarding. We want to get the families involved, the kids out here. I feel like out here is something better than out on the streets — a more safe place for kids to come and have fun and hang out.”
