Letter From The Founder
Tony Hawk
2011 was a successful year in our ongoing mission to help provide quality public skateparks to low-income areas, but there is still plenty of work to be done. We are up to the challenge, and our staff is more experienced and focused than ever. Their passion is contagious.
“The skateparks in high-risk areas that we have helped to fund are thriving—they offer kids a safe place to go and something to do that gives them a sense of self-esteem they may never find anywhere else.”
The skateparks in high-risk areas that we have helped to fund are thriving—they offer kids a safe place to go and something to do that gives them a sense of self-esteem they may never find anywhere else. This is especially true when the kids that have been championing their own park are validated with a grant and resources from THF. Once communities get their first park, they almost always seek to build more because they realize the enduring positive effects they have on kids. And the parks are busy from dawn to dusk.
Our annual fundraising events just keep growing. In 2011, sold-out crowds attended the eighth-annual DaGeDar Presents Stand Up for Skateparks signature benefits in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas. Celebrities, athletes, fans, and friends of the Tony Hawk Foundation came to see a vert demo with me and an A-list of skate and BMX pros riding my personal ramp, and amazing musical performances by The Black Keys and THF Board Member Ben Harper.
Tony helps open the Compton, California skatepark,
which THF helped fund.
With our help, skateparks are growing steadily in numbers, but we still need plenty more of them, built correctly, and located in communities where kids are most at-risk. We are committed to helping those in need more than ever before, and our staff is an encyclopedia of knowledge on the process, resources, and benefits of building free, public skateparks in areas where they are needed most.
See you at the skatepark!
