The Crack Down

Front Royal is very close to having their first skate park. Though it seems the closer we get to raising enough money, the law cracks down harder. I've personally seen kids getting pulled over on both the sidewalk and the street. If on the sidewalk, they're told to get off and vice versa. It seems they're trying pretty hard to stop us from skating until the park gets built. It also seems that they don't understand that they can never stop the kids from doing what they love. However the only skate shop in town has closed down. Still everyday I see kids and adults skating through town looking over their shoulder for the man trying to keep them down. Needless to say, there is passion that goes with skating. What better than a punk show to bring in money for the cause? Not one that has been working this well in this town since now. Every few weeks there are punk shows at Santmyers Youth Center who let us use the space to help with funds. This helps out the scene, gives us a safe place to enjoy ourselves and get away from the troubles of youth for a few hours. Some kids are going out of their way to get money for the park by walking around with buckets for change. In less than one week one skater got $80 for the skate park. All of it was in change but it shows how driven the youth of Front Royal is to get this. There are adults who when they were teenagers were being told that there would be a skate park built. The town changed its mind and built a pool instead. Now 20 years later, the kids are getting it for themselves with help of a few organizations who are matching dollar for dollar up until 2010. They can't keep us down no matter what kind of tickets they give us. This will be built. Most people in this town are behind this cause except for the ones who can interfere with skating in the mean time and call us "pan handlers". I will skate and spange (spare + change) every day until this skate park is built. I'll get down at all the shows to show support for the music and skate scene. I'll take the tickets and take the ride.