How It All Began
Winter 2018
The very first meeting to discuss the possibility of a new skatepark in town was held at the Claresholm town office, which has since been demolished. Trevor Morgan, VP of New Line Skateparks made a presentation to a group of about fifteen people that evening outlining the process and projected costs in constructing a brand new, state of the art skateboard park here in the town of Claresholm.
It was decided shortly thereafter, anyone committed to this project would be contacted about a meeting place and time where we could discuss the next steps.
Hitting The Ground Running
Very shortly after the initial meeting with New Line, the Claresholm Skatepark Association was formed and began to hold monthly meetings to bring this dream to life. We hosted information booths at Canada Day, Fair Days and the Porcupine Hills Car Show that year, in order to make our intentions and our presence known to the community. We hosted two barbeques that summer with generous donations from The Dollar Store With More and IGA, the Claresholm Kinsmen loaned us their bbq.
Our first meetings were held in the FCSS building that now houses the MLA office, there were a few times we met at Mackin Hall and now that the new town office is built, our meetings are held there regularly.
The Long Road To The Finish
It became clear very early on, that it would take numerous dedicated volunteers, lots of creative fundraising ideas and loads of community support to get this project started. We held BBQ's, hosted beer gardens, did a game night and some time later hosted a music bingo night, we catered a wedding and still do bartending for occasions at the community center. There was never a job too big or too small for our little group!
The capital required for a project such as this is significant, so in addition to local fundraising, the Skatepark Association applied for grants we qualified for regularly. After a few years, we were fortunate to receive $30,000.00 from the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southern Alberta, and the large stream CFEP grant in the winter of 2023, valued at $255,116.00. After over 6 years of fundraising, this put us in a position that we could finally break ground and build the new park in spring 2024.
Many people have asked throughout this process, why we don't do casinos and raffles to raise the required funds. Fact is that we didn't qualify for a gambling license through AGLC because their policies made us ineligible. This may change within the next 12 months and is something we are currently working on.
