November 11, 2002

ROLLING WITH THE BUNCHES:
Church opens skate park
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___CORPUS CHRISTI--Local businesses told them to scoot. City leaders put the brakes on their requests for help. But now, a church has stepped forward to help the skateboarders of Corpus Christi.
___First Baptist Church of Corpus Christi opened its $90,000 Susie Dugan Skate Park Nov. 9. The skate park was built on church property, between the recreation center and the main church building. The 8,000 square foot park features eight obstacles, including two freestanding rails, three quarter pipes, a half pipe, fun box, wedge ramp, launch box and spine.
___Church leaders see the skate park as an investment in ministry. Local youth skaters consider it an answer to prayer.
___Conflict between skateboarders and business owners has made headlines in Corpus Christi off and on for the last several years. When businesses shooed the skate enthusiasts away from downtown streets, city leaders talked of building a skate park but never moved forward on the idea.
___"We were looking for a new way to minister to children in our community," explained Mark Nichols, minister of recreation at First Baptist. "We believed we could be a place where we could tell the kids who have been told they are not wanted that we do want them."
___The skate park idea originated in a committee and then moved cautiously through development before construction began. Nichols took the idea to the church on several occasions, first to ask the church's blessing on seeking city zoning approval and then to clear the final concept.
___The church had to obtain a zoning variance from the city. Once that obstacle was crossed, Nichols had to find a way to provide liability insurance, a hurdle some church members thought might be impossible.
___Nichols and Beth Gaddie, a church member who is heading the volunteer effort to develop and run the park, started investigating and learned about the Skate Park Association USA, a network of skate parks that provides low-cost insurance to member entities.
___For $100 per year, the church gets a membership in the association, including liability coverage. Skaters in the park must pay a $30 annual registration fee and must complete a training session to gain admittance. Because of a $10,000 grant from the Rachal Foundation, First Baptist has cut the actual cost to skaters to $20 per year.
___That fee is no barrier to skaters who are eager to have a place of their own to twist, turn, glide and skid. More than 130 skaters signed up and attended orientation sessions before the park ever opened.
___The vast majority of those skaters are not members of First Baptist Church, and many are not active in any church.
___First Baptist requires the youth, who typically are between 10 and 15, to attend orientation with a parent. In those sessions, skaters and their parents learn about skateboard safety and about eternal security.
___So far, 300 youth and parents have attended the orientation. Three families visited the church as a direct result of the orientation before their children ever hit the pavement of the new park.
___Funding for the skate park has come entirely from donations. About half the money was given in memory of Susie Dugan, a beloved church member and youth worker who died this year.
___The park will be open every weekday afternoon and nearly all day Saturday. Two church volunteers will work at the park all the time it is open. Their roles, Nichols said, will be to maintain safety but also to roll out a Christian witness.
___"We're stressing to the volunteers that their job is not to protect the equipment but to build relationships," he said.
___He considers the skate park ministry an extension of the church's already successful Upward Basketball program, which draws about 500 children and youth annually. As with Upward, the skate park will combine sports with a spiritual lift.
___The church has developed a reputation for community service through programs like Upward Basketball, a weekly free play day for preschoolers, a Noah's Ark costume party every fall, an annual Easter egg hunt and a Breakfast with Santa, at which Santa tells young children the real story of Christmas.
___Even though First Baptist offers a number of innovative outreaches to young families in the community, building a skate park was not a natural fit for the congregation with more older members than younger. At first, the idea was a hard sell, Nichols admitted. But in the end, senior adults proved to be some of the staunchest supporters of the ministry.
___The park was built over what once was a vehicle drive-through and passenger drop-off zone. Losing that was an additional inconvenience, especially to older adults.
___Nevertheless, Nichols reported, some said: "It's just an inconvenience. If Christ can be shared with kids, what's an inconvenience?"
___Skate park coordinator Beth Gaddie and Minister of Recreation Mark Nichols have raised support, built a park, recruited volunteers and signed up youth--primarily between the ages of 10 and 15--who want a place to skateboard. This weekend, they opened the gates for the first time.

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