Boards For Bro's 2008
Posted on Monday, December 22, 2008 by Ryan
Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek
It was our third and most successful Boards for Bro’s outing yet. If you’re not familiar with Boards for Bro’s, let me give you the quick breakdown. It’s rather simple really. Three years ago I was skating the Bro Bowl with Paul Schmitt and Ed Womble. This is prior to the demolition of the projects. You know, back when every little ghetto kid would be like, “Lemme get your board. Lemme ride your board!” Paul said, “Hey, we need to figure out a way to get these kids skateboards.” After a short discussion, the plan was to collect donations from skaters to help give other kids a board to skate on. We added used skateboarding product from SPoT, put it back together into ride-able skateboards, and then redistributed the boards to the kids in the projects.
Considering it was already the beginning of December, we didn’t have too much time to plan. But we still managed to give away about 40 skateboards that first year back in 2006. It was very rewarding, so we knew we had to do it bigger and better. We got the entire SPoT staff on the program by informing them to collect as much product as possible in 2007…and that lead to nearly 200 skateboards being passed out that year. Now fast forward to this past December 20, 2008 We had a little over 200 skateboards for the less-than-fortunate Tampa kids.
The caravan started out with a short stop at Desoto Skate Park, just south of Ybor, where there were literally only two kids waiting. From there we winded our way through Ybor and stopped at the subsidized housing just on the west side of Nuccio Parkway. When we pulled the trucks over there were a few kids in sight, but the word must have traveled very quickly because we spent about 20 minutes there giving out completes. When we were finally able to load up, the trek took us over to Robles Park.
Most people don’t know a thing about Robles Park. It’s on Floribraska, just west of I-4. I don’t know why I’m giving you directions because I can’t imagine that you’d like to take a tour because it’s definitely a “real” ghetto. You get the feeling of hopelessness when you drive in there. There are doors ripped off the hinges of entrances, tall metal gates that serve no purpose, trash everywhere, and all of the dirty buildings are painted a shade of dark pink that doesn’t seem to brighten anyone’s day.
Our four vehicles stopped right in the middle of the complex. We got out and no one was around. I was questioned, “Where is everyone?” I assured our crew to be patient and I guaranteed that we’d be able to give away the remaining 150 boards in no time. Finally there was a kid, then two, then a family, and then more and more where it actually turned into a bit of a frenzy. The school bus pulling up was the icing on the cake…the kids had their heads and hands out the window yelling, “I want one! I want one!” Each and every kid came single file off the bus and got their very own skateboard. When the dust settled I think that only one kid didn’t get one, but we gave him a pair of skate shoes instead.
Thanks to our friends at DLX and Ocean Avenue for the hook-up with the product. We got boxes from Black Box and some others, too. Additionally, thanks to our patrons at SPoT for all of the donations we received in 2008. And a special THANK YOU to all of the SPoT Staff that spent their personal time assembling skateboards. We’ll be doing it bigger and better in 2009. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Ryan
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek
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Considering it was already the beginning of December, we didn’t have too much time to plan. But we still managed to give away about 40 skateboards that first year back in 2006. It was very rewarding, so we knew we had to do it bigger and better. We got the entire SPoT staff on the program by informing them to collect as much product as possible in 2007…and that lead to nearly 200 skateboards being passed out that year. Now fast forward to this past December 20, 2008 We had a little over 200 skateboards for the less-than-fortunate Tampa kids.
The caravan started out with a short stop at Desoto Skate Park, just south of Ybor, where there were literally only two kids waiting. From there we winded our way through Ybor and stopped at the subsidized housing just on the west side of Nuccio Parkway. When we pulled the trucks over there were a few kids in sight, but the word must have traveled very quickly because we spent about 20 minutes there giving out completes. When we were finally able to load up, the trek took us over to Robles Park.
Most people don’t know a thing about Robles Park. It’s on Floribraska, just west of I-4. I don’t know why I’m giving you directions because I can’t imagine that you’d like to take a tour because it’s definitely a “real” ghetto. You get the feeling of hopelessness when you drive in there. There are doors ripped off the hinges of entrances, tall metal gates that serve no purpose, trash everywhere, and all of the dirty buildings are painted a shade of dark pink that doesn’t seem to brighten anyone’s day.
Our four vehicles stopped right in the middle of the complex. We got out and no one was around. I was questioned, “Where is everyone?” I assured our crew to be patient and I guaranteed that we’d be able to give away the remaining 150 boards in no time. Finally there was a kid, then two, then a family, and then more and more where it actually turned into a bit of a frenzy. The school bus pulling up was the icing on the cake…the kids had their heads and hands out the window yelling, “I want one! I want one!” Each and every kid came single file off the bus and got their very own skateboard. When the dust settled I think that only one kid didn’t get one, but we gave him a pair of skate shoes instead.
Thanks to our friends at DLX and Ocean Avenue for the hook-up with the product. We got boxes from Black Box and some others, too. Additionally, thanks to our patrons at SPoT for all of the donations we received in 2008. And a special THANK YOU to all of the SPoT Staff that spent their personal time assembling skateboards. We’ll be doing it bigger and better in 2009. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Ryan
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