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Monday, May 23, 2016

Orlando’s Quiet Skate Advocate

We want thank Larry Littrell for his support of the skateboard community in Central Florida. We are really glad that he see's the big picture too.

Larry wrote this article that was published by Chronicles of Gnar "The source for underground skateboard media."

Words by Larry Littrell

Over the better part of the past year the advocacy work to bring a skatepark to the City of Casselberry has lead to me meeting lots of people.  The list has included many skaters, parents, grandparents, city staff and elected officials.  In one way or the other, I’ve learned something from each and every one of them.

The path leading to getting a skatepark in any community is most often a long and winding one with many obstacles across the trail.  Its certainly been the case in Casselberry.


When the effort began we were told the community would need to support of the idea.  In an effort to demonstrate the support, we launched a petition drive. Each and every one of our area skate shops agreed to help collect signatures and put the petition on the counter.  It wasn’t long before we had tons of documented support from across the area in addition to plenty of hometown support.

Even after the effort to get a skatepark was profiled on local TV news, we hosted a standing room only event at the Casselberry Police Department for supporters of the skatepark and the Orlando Sentinel published a story about our effort on its front page, progress continued to be slow at Casselberry City Hall.

Through all of this, there were many times that it could have been easy to throw in the towel and let the delays and cold shoulders discourage our efforts.

It never did.

One of the biggest reasons has been thanks to the quiet advocate that I met early on, Ken, from Galactic G Skate Shop.  He’s been a kingpin holding the skate scene together in Central Florida for a couple of decades.  He won’t tell you that, but his actions do.



From his always welcoming shop, to the grassroots events he puts on at even the smallest skateparks across the Orlando area, Ken carefully and lovingly nurtures the up and coming groms and rewards the core skaters with sponsorships and venues for video premieres.  Simply put, he feeds the skate scene at the street level with a selfless generosity to ensure it continues to grow.

Recently, I stopped by to collect petitions (over a year later he still collects them by the dozens) from Galactic G.  While there, he asked with genuine interest to hear what was going on with the effort to get the Casselberry skatepark built.  His encouragement  is never ending.  As we talked, I shared with him that there were more and more groms skating the streets around town and how seeing it had strengthened my resolve to keep pushing.  I told him about one of the groms in particular and how skating had lead him to avoid trouble and get back on track, leading him to pull straight A’s on his most recent report card.

There was a twinkle in his eye as he nodded and told me he had seen that happen plenty & how he’s seen the positive influence of skating over the years as the owner of Galactic G.

As I headed out the door with a fresh stack of signed petitions to add to the pile at home, Ken stopped me.  He pulled out a stack of decks and simply said to pick one out and get it to the grom we had just talked about.  I was floored by his generosity, but not surprised.



As we continue to fight for the skatepark Casselberry and its kids deserve, I’ll draw strength from Ken’s quiet advocacy, because its the essence of what skating provides.


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