The Boys & Girls Club of Portage County loves to help out our community whenever possible. In this article from 2006, Journalist Andrew Dowd covers the community's need for a skate park and the ways in which the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County showed their support.

“The possibility of a skate park in Stevens Point has area extreme sports enthusiasts excited but is still an idea until the Board of Park Commissioners begins discussing it at their September meeting.

City Alderman C.J. Robinson, who is also the director of development with the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County, sent a letter to the mayor, city representatives, park commissioners, and local media asking the Stevens Point Board of Pak Commissioners to consider establishing a skate park in the city.

“This is now one of the mainstream sports in America,” he said.

Earlier this week, a group of kids and young adults brought their boards and in-line skates to Portage County’s lone skate park in Plover to get in some practice on a sunny August afternoon.

“It’d be nice if we had more places,” said Josh Sturm, 23, of Stevens Point, who has been skateboarding for almost nine years. He’s skated with kids as young as 11 and other adults up to 30.

Strum remembers wanting a skate park in Portage County for the past decade, and finally getting the Plover Park installed a few years ago. He calls a few friends up during the week and they meet at the park with their boards to spend the afternoon practicing stunts and tricks.

The Plover Park serves its purpose for some practice, but Sturm and friends travel to skate parks around the area including Wisconsin Rapids for night practice, larger spaces, and more challenging stunts.

“The Boys & Girls Club has been showcasing skateboarding by holding competitions, including an exhibition held July 8 that drew about 50 participants. At the competitions, Aaron Rogers said he notices more kids with their parents watching and yelling in support similar to audiences at organized youth sports.

“it’s becoming more family involved,” he said.

For the past two years, Rogers has sold skateboards, bikes, accessories, gasoline, and deli foods as the owner at Pump & Pedal at 2581 Post Road in Plover.

He said the Plover Park and its obstacles were not designed to cater to the intermediate and advanced skateboarder.

“A new skateboard park would be better designed,” he said.

Plover’s Park has a handful of obstacles, including a couple of ramps and rails, but no half-pipes or pyramids that many skaters prefer.

An ideal park would be larger than Plover’s with obstacles for beginners but also equipment that experienced skaters could work with, Robinson said. With city ordinances that frown on the use of skateboards on sidewalks and streets, Robinson said the city should think of a place for kids to practice the sport.

Embracing the sport and providing a place for it could reduce the amount of property damage done by skateboarding in private parking lots or buildings.

Stevens Point Mayor Gay Wescott said it’s time to take another look at installing a skate park in the city. But the timing may not be ideal because of the tax levy freeze in the state budget that could limit projects the city takes on in the next two years.

Kids, teenagers, and young adults are interested in skateboarding in-line skating and trick biking, he said, and it helps get them out of the house, away from the TV and exercising.

Aside from the exercise and a way to pass the summer, skating also gives Tyler Dunn, 16, of Plover a feeling of accomplishment when he lands a trick. He spends about two hours a day at the state park down the road from his home, but he hopes another park can be built with larger obstacles to challenge veterans.

The skate park in Plover is miles away from most kids who live in Stevens Point. Public transportation does not extend from the city to its southern neighbor.

The Plover skate park was built from donations made by local skateboarding enthusiasts donated by the village.”



Four years after this article was published, Stevens Point finally got its skate park. To master your own stunts and tricks, visit Bukolt Park in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.