With more than half the money needed for a $235,000 skate park already in place, Kiwanian Steve Maki of the skate park committee is starting to sell personalized bricks to raise the balance to get construction started this spring.
“We’ve spoken to nine businesses and sold $15,000 worth of bricks—we’re off to a good start,” Maki said Friday, adding he’ll start knocking on doors in earnest today.
“When all is said and done, I think we’re going to sell $100,000 worth of bricks,” he added as he showed off a number of bricks, including 20 that Holmlund Financial has purchased.
The bricks cost $100 each, for which you can get a tax receipt.
These bricks, which come in black or brown, will be used to pave the “family section” of the proposed 14,000 sq. ft. concrete park, which will be located behind the Memorial Sports Centre.
This area won’t be skateboarded on, but will be an area with picnic tables where kids, or the parents and siblings of skateboarders, can hang out.
Unlike the “donor wall” the Riverside Foundation for Health Care uses in its fundraising, donors who buy multiple bricks could take up a block of space big enough to place a corporate or business logo on, noted Maki.
The more money a person puts into it, the more visible their name.
And the lettering on these bricks can be in colour if the donor so wishes.
“People can buy the bricks, and if they can come up with the idea, the company can put those ideas on the bricks,” said Maki.
“You can make it as elaborate as you want,” he added, noting a company in Winnipeg takes the design for the brick, whether it’s a name, graphic, or logo, inputs it to a computer, prints it out, cuts out the areas to appear on the brick(s), and then sandblasts it onto the brick.
“What better form of advertising?” remarked Maki. “We’re going to have our youth and their families around these bricks for at least the next 25 years.”^Having been promoting the idea of the skate park here for almost 16 months, Maki said it looks like the project finally is becoming a reality.
“We are over halfway there.
Now, it’s a matter of the community coming forward,” he said. “Let’s get the kids off the street and give them something to do.”^Those interested in buying bricks, or learning more about sponsoring the skate park project, can call Maki at 274-2875. If he’s not available, leave a message and he’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
