Donors for decks

Culture | October 8th, 2015

Local skater starts crowdfunding campaign to purchase skateboards for youth

By Jamie Hutchinson

When local skaters noticed the number of kids at Fargo skate parks who were interested in skateboarding but didn’t have the means to purchase a board, they decided to do something about it.

Luke Hampton, a native of Fargo-Moorhead now based in Minneapolis, set up a crowdfunding campaign to help purchase skateboards for Fargo-Moorhead youth. The campaign, which is titled “build the Fargo skate community” and hosted by GoFundMe, has a goal of $800. Donors have reached three-fourths of that goal in the past month. However, this is just the first step.

“Our main goal is to build the skateboarding community in Fargo-Moorhead and try to get some of these kids who are coming to the park and just watching, actively participating,” said Tom Kemmer, owner of indoor skate ramp The Hawk’s Nest.

Once people donate enough money, the plan is to get involved with a skateboard company that offers reduced rates on complete skateboards for purposes like this.

“Luke’s pretty adamant about it,” Kemmer said. “That’s why he just took the rein, started the GoFundMe, and we’re going to combine that with fundraisers around town and just see how much we can get — how far it can go.”

While spreading the word about the GoFundMe campaign through social media has had some success, Kemmer believes getting people out to physical locations with the specific purpose of donating could prove more successful.

“It’s a little more involved and, obviously, a lot more personal than staring at a screen,” he said. Some ideas to increase donations include holding fundraising events in collaboration with local businesses, such as having bars offer a free pint for a $20 donation or by having live music at The Hawk’s Nest.

In addition to businesses, they’d like to reach out to people who used to skate or have kids that do. Ideally, they’d like donations to reach into the thousands.

“In talking to Luke, he wants to just basically raise as much money as he can and get as many boards for as many kids as we can,” Kemmer said, “and I’m all about that.”

While Kemmer doesn’t believe they will create a non-profit organization, they will “definitely form some kind of an organization,” he said.

Although the purpose of the campaign is to raise money to put skateboards in the hands of kids who don’t have the means to purchase them, it’s also about the benefits skateboarding has to offer, Kemmer explained. Not only does it help with balance and dexterity but perseverance, as well, because, as Kemmer puts it, skateboarding is not easy.

“Everything good in my life has come from skateboarding,” Kemmer said. “It’d be nice to give some other kids that opportunity.”

Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/v23mm9w8.