BARRHEAD - The ramps from the old Barrhead skateboard park will soon have a home or, more likely, several.
On Wednesday, May 24, Cousins Skateboard Community came to collect the remaining skatepark equipment.
Cousins Skateboard Community, based out of Medicine Hat, is a not-for-profit organization that works with Indigenous communities to create skateboarding programs for youth.
The Town of Barrhead bought the skateboard apparatuses in 2004 from another community used.
"God knows how old it really is," parks and recreation director Shallon Touet said.
The equipment became available when the first phase of Barrhead's new all-wheel skatepark was completed.
Earlier this month, councillors instructed administration to dispose of the equipment via the Alberta Recreation Association at no cost to help a municipality that may not have the ability to build a skateboard park.
Touet said that became unnecessary after the Neerlandia Sports Committee made them aware they were interested in half of the equipment.
Cousins executive director Stuart Young learned about the equipment through his mother Lavena Thompson, who lives in the Lac La Nonne area. She herself found out about the equipment through an impromptu conversation with County of Barrhead Walter Preugschas after a pickleball game.
Young and his family, who spent much of the pandemic with his mother, was familiar with the equipment and was excited about the possibility.
Young, who had a decade-long career in the energy industry, said he was looking for a change due to the pandemic, so he and his friend C.J. Cutter decided to start the not-for-profit in 2020.
"We are both skateboard enthusiasts, and we wanted to give youth from Indigenous communities, like we were, the same chance to experience what the sport did for us," he said. “Skateboarding changed my life and not in a cheesy way, but in a real tangible way.”
He added that he grew up the child of a single mother, and by the time Young was 15, he was out on his own.
“I got into trouble that 15-year-olds get into that do not have proper guidance," he said. "It was through skateboarding that I met some people who helped me find my path. I went back to school and then went to university. I actually met my wife at a skateboard shop, we’ve been married 13 years now and have two children."
Young added that the name Cousins comes from an Indigenous term of endearment.
“People will say, ‘What’s up, cousin?’ and it basically means you’re more than a friend, that you’re family. And that is what the skateboard community is," he said.
Cousins started out by building wooden skateboard ramps and hosting contests in Siksika Nation, where Cutter grew up. But the organization, no pun intended, started to ramp up after they purchased a mobile skateboard park from Calgary.
Young explained that they make the mobile skateboard park available to the communities for the season, saying their hope is that by supplying the equipment, they will see the benefit it has for their youth and then work towards building a permanent park. Their goal is to have every one of the five Indigenous communities in Treaty 7 in southern Alberta have permanent skateparks.
And it seems to be working, he said, as one of the communities will be breaking ground on the construction of a new park soon.
However, Young said Cousins does more than supply the mobile park.
“We work with local communities to identify needs and opportunities of how youth can become involved in skateboarding,” he said.
But Young said, more importantly, they provide coaching and mentorship.
He added that Cousins often ends up working with other organizations in the community, including schools and recreation departments.
“It is about learning what youth need to thrive in this environment and then provide it. Really, at the end of the day, what they need is to be heard,” he said.
As for what will happen to the former Barrhead skateboard ramps, they will be refurbished and modified to make them more mobile (i.e. not needing a crane to lift them) at their Medicine Hat shop before being sent they are sent to most likely to the Siksika Nation, about an hour southeast of Calgary.
Young estimates that it will take about four months and upwards of $60,000 to complete the work.
But despite the work required, he said, he was pleasantly surprised at the condition of the ramps.
"The ramps have steel frames and the ramps are fibreglass. It needs some welding and things like that, but by the time we are done with them, they will look brand new and will last another 20 years."
He also thanked the Town of Barrhead for partnering with Cousins.
"These ramps are going to get a new life, and help us engage our youth," Young said.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
