Tony Hawk Foundation Awards Over $1-Million

Words directly from the Tony Hawk Foundation

Skater's nonprofit organization hits milestone in aid to community skateparks.

7/8/05 (Vista, CA) – With its latest round of grant awards, the nonprofit Tony Hawk Foundation has exceeded one-million dollars in grants to communities building free public skateparks.

At its Spring meeting, the foundation's Board of Directors voted to award $87,334 to nineteen communities across the U.S. The Board favored applicants whose parks will be located in low-income areas with a high percentage of "at-risk" youth, who demonstrated a strong grassroots commitment to the project, who indicated significant fundraising achievements by local skateboarders and community groups, and whose proposed skatepark designs have a creative mix of street obstacles and transition or bowl terrain.

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Tony Hawk Foundation Grants are one-time donations for the construction of public skateparks. This term's recipients were chosen from a pool of 123 applicants:

Cusick, Washington (Town of Cusick) $20,000
Missoula, Montana (Missoula Skatepark Association) $15,000
Stanley, Virginia (Page County Skatepark Committee) $10,000
El Paso, Texas (Teens in Action) $10,000
Bath, New York (Village of Bath) $6,334
Creston, Iowa (City of Creston) $5,000
Independence, Kansas (City Of Independence) $5,000
Owenton, Kentucky (Owen County Parks and Recreation) $5,000
Los Angeles, California (Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council) $1,000
Douglas, Georgia (City Of Douglas Parks and Recreation Dept.) $1,000
Blairsville, Georgia (Union County Parks and Recreation Dept.) $1,000
Loogootee, Indiana (Loogootee Park and Recreation Board) $1,000
Portland, Oregon (Skaters for Public Skateparks) $1,000
Cumberland, Maryland (City of Cumberland) $1,000
Baudette, Minnesota (Baudette Community Foundation) $1,000
Cedar Hill, Missouri (Highway 30 Foundation) $1,000
Ogdensburg, New York (City of Ogdensburg) $1,000
Corpus Christi, Texas (Junior League of Corpus Christi, Inc.) $1,000
Kettle Falls, Washington (City of Kettle Falls) $1,000

The application deadline for the next round of Tony Hawk Foundation skatepark grants is September 1, 2005. More information regarding deadlines and applicant criteria is available on the foundation's Web site at www.tonyhawkfoundation.org

A charitable, non-profit organization, the Tony Hawk Foundation was established in 2002 by its namesake, professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, to promote and provide funds for high-quality public skateparks throughout the United States—with an emphasis on the word “quality.” Since then, it has awarded $1,042,000 to 261 communities around the country. The foundation focuses on working with local officials and grassroots, community-based organizations that plan to hire designers and contractors with strong experience designing and building parks.

The Tony Hawk Foundation was established by a gift from Tony Hawk. Its directors raise additional funds through events, industry donations, and continuing contributions from Tony and other entities. In addition to skateparks, the foundation also makes donations to other children-related charities, as chosen by its Board of Directors. For more information or to make a donation, access the Foundation's Web site at www.tonyhawkfoundation.org.