Tony Hawk uses skateboarding to teach community organizing
Tony Hawk's The Skatepark Project has launched a fellowship program, which is training 15 skateboarding enthusiasts in community organizing and project management so they can build a skatepark in their neighborhoods
Sara Campos remembers being inspired to start skateboarding after playing Tony Hawk videogames on the California family’s PlayStation 2.
Campos, 23, who uses they/them pronouns, never dreamed they would be part of Tony Hawk’s charitable work. But last month, Campos was selected for the first class in The Skatepark Project’s fellowship program. The program trains 15 diverse skateboarding enthusiasts in community organizing and project management to be able to build a skatepark in their neighborhoods. Not only does the program hope to create a new gathering place in minority communities. It also aims to support and train young minority leaders.
“It’s almost like a dream come true,” said Campos, who used to draw skatepark designs on printer paper to show their parents. “Getting to do that again, but for real this time, is one of those things you didn’t actually think would happen.”
It’s almost exactly what Hawk hoped for when he launched this initiative.
