LET'S BUILD A SKATEPARK
A personal fundraiser by
Pam CopelandA small group of dedicated volunteers can make big things happen.
$13,829
raised by 8 people
$17,000 goal
5 months left
2023 The Story Continues
In May, BCSA hosted a rummage sale and skate clinic, where skatepark etiquette was taught.
June 21 is National Go Skateboarding Day, and for the 2nd year running we hosted a family friendly day, complete with skating and live music.
As an advocacy group, our Skate Day Jams are the sort of event BCSA promotes for the skaters and the community that will keep going long after the new park is built.
Events such as this one, are focused on skaters, young and old, and kindling the love of the sport.
September 30 Spool Effect played an amazing benefit concert for us. It was a fun night including a skateboard raffle thanks to a generous donation by Yousta of CDA.
We are completing our year with a raffle for 2 nights in air bnb or flight for 3 over Boundary County.
It's been an amazing year and a half and we are well on our way to our initial goal of $10,000 to purchase an official plan in preparation for grant writing. 18 months and we have raised $7200.00.
We have had many local fundraisers to get us to this point but we still need your help. Anything you can give to fund this worthwhile project is so appreciated.
Our Story 2022
The Alliance as we know it has its roots in 2015. Just over 7 years ago, BCSA Core Member and treasurer, who also started this Facebook page, Pam Smith Copeland, posted a plea on Facebook back when she was with the Parks and Rec Board. She was again asking for interest in building a new skate park, after no one had showed up at the December 2015 P&R meeting to form a committee to start the process. As she warned of in that post, after the P&R January 2016 meeting, the idea had to be tabled to a “later date”.
Thankfully that date finally came, at the end of April of 2022. That's when, Nancy Schaffer, the most recent Sports Director for Parks and Rec, after talking with some of the skaters, put out a flier to again see what interest there was in skatepark. The very first public meeting was on May 13th and the response was huge for a small town like Bonners Ferry.
Within a couple weeks of the first meeting, a small core of 4-6 people had formed, and by June 21st we held our inaugural event at the park. We had a lot of enthusiastic volunteers show up and contribute including a real kick start from Jason Olsen, of Yousta Story Tellers, out of CDA and the at large Skate Park Advocacy community…And so it was, that with some online guidance videos and literature from The SkatePark Project ™ and with the support of so many other volunteers from within our community, BCSA was formed.
We held one more event at the park where we had a contest to choose our killer logo, then we gathered and participated in the fair parade. During the Fair, our Local Eagles Auxiliary surprised us with a raffle in our honor, raising the first large contribution from the community of $ 1,385.00.
Our third and final public event of 2022 was our Halloween party on a rainy and cold Saturday Oct 22nd, with skating in the Park Pavilion.
So, from insufficient support 7 years earlier to the reboot in May, we are really only 7 months into this drive, and we have raised $4105.52, toward our initial short-term goal of $10,000. May I remind you, that we are an all-volunteer group with just a few regular core people, all with day jobs, meeting twice a month and trying to ask people for money in the economy of 2022. So, the best reason we can point to for our success thus far is that it’s time has come and this community is answering the call. Now THAT’S something all who are reading this can be proud of.
A personal fundraiser by
Pam Copeland