Girl Scout kick starts skatepark campaign
A 17 year old girl scout named Kaitlin Fabich is leading a push to get a skatepark built in her town. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be about how more young girls are getting into skateboarding. You see, Kaitlin doesn’t skate, she’s just using the process to qualify for a Gold Award in Girl Scouting. It makes me doubt her long term commitment to the project, but if it helps in any way then it’s further proof that skateboarding has saturated popular culture. Aaack! Do we need more proof? I guess not. Boy Scouts have ranks, the highest being an Eagle Scout. One of the things you have to do to get that rank is to organize a community service project and log X amount of hours, as well as get X amount of volunteer hours from your peers. Girls Scouts don’t have ranks I guess, they just have awards. At 17, I think Kaitlin needs to get her ass in gear before she gets the boot for being to old. Of course, reading that she was 17 made me think of going a different direction with the post graphic, but I decided on a wholesome approach. The “Scouting” and skateboarding connection is not new. There was a division of Boy Scouts of America called Exploring that was open to older kids from around 14 -20 or so, both male and female. In the late 80’s it was not unheard of for Exploring Posts to form solely for the purpose of providing a place to skate. A private halfpipe facility that was run by an Explorer Post was covered by the Boy Scouts of America’s blanket insurance policy, at least that’s how I remember it being explained. Exploring seems to have been replaced by Venturing as far as the Boy Scouts go. Does anyone out there have any Exploring Post vert ramp stories to tell?
I seem to remember reading about the Boy Scout insurance in Thrasher Ramp Plans, but I could be mistaken…
I skated a park in Ashland KY back in the early 90’s that was an Explorer Post. John Drake and Rob Dyrdek were apparent “regulars.” Whatever happened to Drake (I think that was his name)?
In Seattle in the 80’s a bunch of us were part of an explorer post that had a “portable” half pipe and put on contests etc. it was called the Washington Amateur Skateboarders Association but it had that insurance blanket.
I remember a few parks in the 80’s that had the scouts involved. I think it was for insurance reasons but am not sure. And to Concretin’s earlier post….I was pro for 7 years for Alien Workshop and now I own a skate shop in Charlotte NC.