FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local Teen Group Works to Bring Skate Park to Henderson County 

Hendersonville Kids Alliance to Skate Presentation Slated for May City Council Meeting

Organized and led by five local home school students, The Hendersonville Kids Alliance to Skate is working to bring a skate park to Henderson County. 

The third largest participant sport in the United States, skateboarding is a recreation to be reckoned with. While skate parks exist largely in heavily populated, metropolitan areas, skateboarders in smaller communities often get the cold shoulder when it comes to having a place to skate. 

In many communities, it is illegal to skate on city streets, sidewalks and parking lots, leaving disgruntled skaters with no place to go. 

However, that trend is changing as community governments are being asked to provide kids with a safe and challenging place for skateboarders to practice their sport.

The Hendersonville Kids Alliance to Skate is hoping to make such a change in Henderson County. 

The group has been busy getting signatures and meeting with community groups.  At a recent regional Sk8 Fest at Biltmore Baptist Church, they manned an information booth and solicited signatures of support from parents and students.  Last Wednesday, the students canvassed downtown Hendersonville merchants for signatures, and received an overwhelming majority of support for their effort. 

To increase public awareness of their project, The Kids Alliance designed a logo, T-shirts, and flyers for distribution.  A web site, www.skatehendersonville.com, was designed to provide further information on skateboarding as a sport, and educate the community on the project.  An online petition was developed, enabling supporters to submit their signatures online.  Students will bring the petition signatures to the upcoming May 4 Hendersonville City Council meeting to demonstrate community interest.

According to recent statistics, in 2002, there were about 16 million skateboarders and an estimated 400 public skate parks.  That number is up from 11.5 million skaters in 2000.  Incidentally there were only 9 million little league baseball players in the U.S., yet most cities with multiple baseball fields had yet to build skate parks.

For more information on The Hendersonville Kids Alliance to Skate, please visit their web site at www.skatehendersonville.com 

For More Information Contact:

Hendersonville Kids Alliance To Skateboard

Diane Hendrickson, Parent Advisor
Hendersonville, N.C.
Tel: 828-551-3270
Internet: info@skatehendersonville.com