Skatepark Collective Builds, Opens Half-pipe

HARDWICK – Members of the Hardwick Skatepark Collective, along with friends and community members, came together for The Civic Standard weekly community dinner on June 18. After the meal, they cut the ribbon on a temporary half-pipe structure behind the Hardwick Fire Department.

The collective, which was formed with the primary goal of constructing a Hardwick skatepark, has a description on the Civic Standard website which reads: “It’s a small town but the spirit of skateboarding is strong! There are many younger kids (and adults) that skateboard as well as others that bike, roller skate and more. You may see that the only place people have to skateboard in the town of Hardwick are the streets, this is not only a nuisance to drivers on the road, but highly unsafe. Having a skatepark in Hardwick would keep the skateboard community off the streets.”

Rose Friedman, an East Hardwick resident and founder of the Civic Standard, worked with the collective to get permits for the half-pipe, which she said was a struggle for everyone involved.

“This is a group of kids that was running into a lot of trouble and issues with drivers, and finding themselves at odds with the public a lot. Giving them a dedicated space to practice this thing that they were really trying to practice in the middle of Main Street was healthier for everybody,” she said.

Michael Parker, a skatepark builder, and Rob Montgomery, a carpenter, helped the collective to build the half-pipe. Friedman said the collective, many of them middle and high schoolers, assisted in the building process, which began May 18.

Stuart Quinn, between tricks and bites of burger, says he comes to the ramp almost every day, and plans to come all summer. Many other members of the collective were doing tricks on the ramp seconds after its opening.

Two police officers attended the opening of the ramp. Joe Donna, a Hardwick resident said that the structure will be good for youngsters. The collective continues to work on opening a permanent skatepark in the future.

Alex Strand

Alex Strand is a Hardwick Gazette reporting intern for this summer. She is a rising junior at the University of Vermont studying English and Psychology. She is from Boston, MA, but has begun to fall in love with the Northeast Kingdom. In her free time, she likes reading, swimming and canoe tripping.