Wednesday, November 21

Skate Benefit for the WTC tragedy.

By Press Release

On November 3, the skateboarding community came together to skate and raise money for the victims of the September 11th WTC tragedy.

Many benefits involving music, art, and sports have been held since the attacks. We wanted to do our part with what we know best, skateboarding. This event gave us the opportunity to give back and bring skateboarders together. To remember why we got into skateboarding in the first place.

Many skateboard companies showed support through product and financial donations. The skateboard mags and websites really came through to help promote the event, as well as the east coast skateboarders who spent their days skating the streets of Manhattan, NY distributing flyers.

The event was held on Saturday, November 3rd at the Millennium Skate Park in BayRidge Brooklyn (re-scheduled from the original date of October 27th in order to allow more people to get involved).

The morning of the event was dark with gray clouds, but we threw caution to the wind and loaded our rental truck with so much skate product it would make any true skater drool. As we hit the highway the rain began to come down and we quickly changed to a local weather station that said the rain would end shortly and the sun would come out for the rest of the day.

When we arrived at the Millennium Skate Park in BayRidge Brooklyn, we found that the park was filled with water and a group of 10-15 skateboarders were out with brooms and mops trying to dry the place off. We were blown away by their actions and quickly joined them. At one point, we even bought a ton of paper towels and began to soak up the park by hand. As I stood up from mopping, I looked around and saw all these skaters determined to dry this park off. It reminded me of why skateboarding is so special and unique.

After about an hour and a half of drying off the park, it became skateable. The DJ began to spin records and people started dropping in. The skating was amazing and the best part was that there were no vibes, just pure skateboarding.

Riders in attendance were: Tony Cox, Pat Smith, Akira, Dan Pensyl, Mike Nalls, Paul McElroy, Tino Razo and some local rippers...

Prizes were raffled off, a best trick contest was held and everyone walked out of there with something.

Between donations from companies and individuals, as well as the money from product being raffled off, we raised over $35,000. We want to thank all the companies that came through for this benefit and we especially want to thank you and all the other skateboarders. Even if you couldn't make it for whatever reason, we know you would have been down.

Even though the event is over, the work is not. If you would like to help, you can make a donation at http://www.helping.org/wtc/ny/nystate.htm. WTC benefit T-shirts will be available for purchase after December 1st at http://www.soletechnology.com/wtc/ (all proceeds will benefit Sept. 11th victims fund).

Thank you for caring.

DONORS: Anthem Magazine, Beyond Image, Blades, Board and Skate, City of New York Parks & Recreation, Deluxe, DVS, Dwindle, Emerica, éS, Etnies, The Familie, 5boro, Heckler, IMS, In Record Time, Killing Machine, Manuverline, Mervin Mfg., Ocean Avenue Distribution, One Marketing Co., Rookie, Saint Skateboards, Savier, Slap Magazine, Spiewak, Split, Supreme, Thrasher Magazine, TransWorld Skateboarding Magazine, Tum Yeto, Vehicle, Volcom, War Effort, Zoo York.