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.
