Saturday Afternoon @ Estabrook

We are planning to start laying some block in the NE corner of the park on Saturday afternoon around 1. We are still looking for additional funds for mortar and block or donations of just materials would be great! We need to get this block wall built so we can start packing fill and forming to pour some crete! If you want to help out this weekend, just shoot me a message or post on our FB page. Maybe we can all enjoy a cold beer and the new beer garden after all the hard work is done!

Good Response

We spent Saturday down at McKinley park for the 105 Days of Summer Celebration and were very pleased with the response we received. We were able to put ourselves out there and bring awareness to our cause. Everyone we talked to had a very positive response to our efforts and had some great suggestions for ways to spread awareness about our cause. Plan on seeing our presence increase around town as more people join our cause. We now have an army of volunteers ready to do work, but are a little short on the funds to make anything happen. If you haven't bought one of the RideMKE t-shirts yet, please stop by you local skateshop and pick one up, all of the profits from these shirts goes directly toward building material. Also make sure you "Like" our Facebook page so that you can stay updated on our events and progress.

FYI - Did you know that the City of West Allis is in the planning stages of a public skatepark? How is it that West Allis is so far ahead of Milwaukee on this? Please help us make a push to bring Milwaukee up to par.

Busy Weekend

There are a lot of events going on this upcoming weekend and we are going to attempt to attend everything. It has been posted on here before, but we are going to continue promoting the 105 Year Milwaukee County Parks Celebration taking place at McKinley Park on the lakefront on Saturday. We will have a tent sent up down there so make it a point to get out to the lakefront and stop by to see what we have going on. We need to spread the word about our efforts for skateparks in Milwaukee County and this is going to be a great platform for that. This movement is starting to get a good head of steam and we are being contacted by more and more people everyday, but we need to keep it going so that it doesn't fizzle out.

On another very exciting note, the new Beer Garden in Estabrook Park is planning to open up on Friday! This is located at the convenience station just to the north of the skatepark. We will be getting there around 4:30 Friday afternoon and plan on having an informal meeting/brainstorm session for the skatepark. Try to stop by and enjoy a couple cold ones with us and find out what the plans are going forward. This is a great opportunity to support other park activities and possibly network for future fundraisers to take place at the park.

Sunday we are tentatively planning a morning build session. It will depend on our ability to raise some funds between now and then to come up with the money for some more block and mortar. If you can help out at all with this please let us know. We have the donation button on the blog and donation buckets set up at the shops in town and will also have one at our tent on Saturday. We will continue to update on here and FB for activities taking place on Sunday so stay tuned.

Once we can get the first few pieces built it will create a good buzz and help us to keep things going, we just need all the help we can get to make that happen. All efforts are greatly appreciated.

Brick and Mortar

Many thanks to everyone that came out to Estabrook Park bright and early on Memorial day. We were able to establish the footings for the block wall that will retain the quarterpipes that are planned for the NE corner of the park (check out the pictures on Facebook). Next step is to start spreading mortar and throwing down the blocks. If you would like to get involved or donate, we are in need of funds or material to get more concrete blocks and mortar. There is tentatively a plan to have another build sessions going on later this week / weekend, so stay tuned for date and time and show up to pitch in and make Estabrook a better place to skate.

Now I would like to address some of the feedback and comments we have been receiving. First of all there is not a plan to go in and destroy everything that is existing, we will only be removing items that have long passed there usefulness and replacing them with new concrete elements that will stand up to the test of time. I know that many of you are looking for an overall site plan showing what the layout of the new park will be, unfortunately, this is not really how a DIY park works. We don't have the funds to go in and build out everything at once, so it will go piece by piece and be an organic design that will develop as it goes. In rough terms - we are planning to create a transition/flow park on the north side of the space and the south space will continue to be all street elements. We will post far in advance of anything being built, so if you have suggestions or issues with what we are doing, speak up and get involved. We want this to be a community effort and create a space for all to enjoy, but we need to hear from everyone and get input to make that happen.

Remember to pitch in and use the "Donate" button to donate whatever you can. We also have donation cans set up at SkyHigh, both Phase II shops and Bigfoot Bike and Skate, so drop all your spare change in the buckets and help us raise funds to build. If you haven't yet purchased your exclusive RideMKE t-shirts you can also pick those up at the shops listed above for $15 or send us an email and we will send you one for $20 (includes shipping).

Memorial Day Clean-Up / Tear Down / Build-Up

We are planning on meeting up at Estabrook Park on Monday morning (Memorial Day) to get a clean-up, tear down, build-up session going. If you would like to get involved, just show up at Estabrook early on Monday. All you need to bring is gloves, hammer, crowbar or any other tools of mass destruction that you may have. We are planning to scrap out, clean-up and start laying out and setting foundations for new elements. Send this post to all your friends and get them involved. I will post a more specific time later today.

T-Shirts Hot Off The Press!

First Edition of the RideMKE t-shirts have arrived and are available for sale! Be the first one on your block to sport the hottest new fashion in Milwaukee! Just $15 gets you one of these great shirts and helps raise funds for us to build skateparks around Milwaukee. We have a limited number of Medium, Large and XL shirts available so get them while they are hot. There are a couple shirts for sale at Sky High and Bigfoot Bike and Skate in Bayview, or you can send us an email and we can sell you one directly (shipping extra, free local delivery).

First Proposed Street Element

So after watching the Atlanta DIY video that SkyHigh posted on FB, the idea of building a wedged manual pad with a smaller ledge and/or hubba ledge next to it started to look like a real good idea. This would also be a relatively easy piece to build and would allow for expansion/modification. Jeff Kay did these nice renderings of what something like this would look like (Thanks Jeff). I wanted to put this out there for all of you to have a look and give me your feedback on the design/ placement of this piece at the park. I stopped by the park on my lunch today and laid out the NE corner for the block wall we will have to build to retain everything, had a chance to talk to a couple people who were there at the time and they were really amped about something like this being built. 

Oh yeah, shirts will be here at the end of the week so make sure you have your $15 ready to pick yours up and don't forget to spread the word to all your friends about our efforts. We need everyone to come together to make this happen.

Blue and Yellow!

Check out the final colorway that was selected for our first round of t-shirts. We decided to go with the baseball theme and use the classic Brewer's blue and yellow. The shirts will be hitting the Milwaukee area at the end of next week and will be for sale at a few select locations around town or you can always send us a message and we can sell you one directly. Each shirt only costs $15 and as always, any profits made from the sale of the shirts will go directly to building skateparks in the Milwaukee community.

Mark Your Calendars

On June 2nd the Milwaukee County Parks are holding a 105 year anniversary celebration at McKinley Park on the lakefront. Each individual parks group has been invited to set up at booth to spread the word about their organizations. We have reached out to the powers that be and have been given the approval to set up our own tent at the event. We cannot sell anything at the booth for fundraising purposes, but this is going to be a big opportunity to spread the word about our mission and connect with others in the community that would like to get involved. This could also be an opportunity for us to try and bring on sponsors. The event runs all day, but we will be required to have someone at our tent from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. We are going to start reaching out to all of you to get on board (no pun intended) and join us down at the park to advocate for our cause. If anyone has an awning, folding table, chairs, etc. we are going to be in need of all those things so let us know if you can supply one or the other. We will be putting together a banner with our great logo on it and also some various information to set on the table. Shoot us an email if you can help out.

Roll Out The Donation Buckets

We finished putting together the donation buckets last night. I will start distributing them to all the skateshops in town, so keep your eyes and wallets open. Drop in your spare change or whatever you can spare, if the masses come together on this effort we will have what we need to start building very soon.

We are finalizing our t-shirt order today and hope to have shirts for sale early next week. For our first run of shirts we are going with the classic Brewer's Blue and Yellow, they will be for sale at shops throughout town or you can contact us directly if you would like one. I will post up some pictures as soon as they come in.

Fundraising events are in the works and we will start posting dates/locations soon. Get in touch with us if you want to join in the fun!