It All Began Here at Sands Skateboard Park Holmfirth

In memory of Isaac Mason Atkinson (1998-2012)

Who we areWe are a group of young adults who live in Holmfirth and are trying to raise money to improve our local skatepark.

Just after the group was formed we lost a main member and dear friend, so we are carrying on the project in his memory.

What we would like

A skatepark where everyone in our community, of all ages, can come together to experience the excitement of skating.

A skatepark that provides an environment where children can converse and share the events of the day.

A skatepark to be proud of and share with other children outside of our community.

Reasons why The population of the skateboard park keeps growing and there isn’t enough space for everyone to have fun without it being a safety hazard.

It will bring the young people in and around Holmfirth together and be a safe area away from shops and houses.

Parents would feel safer and happier if their children could skate in Holmfirth instead of having to travel to other areas.

It would be in memory of our dear friend Isaac, who was a keen skater.

How it would benefit the communityIf there was an exciting skateboard park, the young people would feel less inclined to use public car parks and stairs to get the thrills of skating.

Older members of the community wouldn’t feel as threatened by skaters using pedestrian areas.

It would encourage more young people to exercise, be sociable with others and be out in the fresh air.

We arranged a meeting with John Fletcher (Head of Parks and Landscapes) and Maryke Woods (Parks Development Officer) at Sands Skatepark on 28th October 2012.

We arranged a meeting with a skatepark company to find out how much we would need

They were really interested in our ideas...

and showed us what could fit the space the council had allocated.

We have the designs from Wheelscape,

but we’ve promised not to make them public just yet!

Some event ideas to raise funds.

The Halloween Skate Jam!

The face painting was complete... and the skating commenced!

Gone skating t-shirts

T-shirts were designed... and sold!

The House at SheffieldA lot of people from Sheffield attended and made a donation... as well as twenty seven of us!

Money raised so farHalloween skate: £119.34

Halloween Trick or Treating - £396.10

Wristbands: £666.00

Printed logo t-shirts - £492.50

Skate Jam at The House, Sheffield – £278.75

Money raised so far (cont)

3K Sponsored Run - £474.40

Coffee morning - £126.00

Book Sale - £35.18

Body Shop Party - £100.00

Donations - £131.44

Christmas raffle - £213.50Total raised so far: £2,983.21

Costs so far:

Wristbands - £266 for 500

Printed logo t-shirts - £550 for 100

Tickets for the concert - £50.00

Total costs: £866.00

Fundraising to come

Here are some examples of fundraising activities to come:

Concert at the local Picture Drome (24/03/2013)

Non-school uniform day

Bag packing at the local Coop store (June 2013)

Summer Event

Sponsored Mountain Bike Challenge

Grants we’ve applied for or are in the process of applying for:•Leo group – funding up to £2,500. This is for the Bradford area but Sarah Rafiq (VCA link officer) said they might consider us, so we sent a hand written application through.

•Kirklees Youth Council Grant Scheme – funding up to £500.

•Reaching Communities Big Lottery Fund – funding up to £50,000.

There’s lots of people that use the skate park...

From the younger children...

who watch and learn!

To the parents...

...and all of us!

We need £55,000 in total!

We know it won’t be easy, but hope you can help us achieve

our goal.

We presented this presentation to the council on Thursday 7th February 2013.

The Chairman, Donald Firth, explained that there was very little in the council funds at present, but there may be something they can do next financial year.

Link to the agenda for the meeting:

https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/Secure/meetings/MeetingsDiary.asp?commId=274

We came in between section 5 and 6.