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!

Good First Week

Well our first week of being a legitimate non-profit organization has come and gone. Have to say that we are really optimistic about the direction everything is going and the response that we are getting from others in the community. Big thanks to Sky High and Bigfoot Bike & Skate for spreading the word to all their friends about what we are trying to accomplish. We have started reaching out to various companies about donations/products for fundraising and have been getting positive results on that front also. Some different fundraising ideas have been thrown around and we are hoping to have a large fundraising event within the next couple of weeks. By the end of this week we plan to have some donation jars spread around town in some key locations to start collecting spare change, remember every penny will help to get us closer to our goal. In the meantime, we always have the "Donate" button if you can spare a few bucks to help out. If you would like to get involved email us at rideMKE@gmail.com or "Like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @rideMKE

Needs / Wants / Wishes / ETC.

The initial quarterpipes that we plan to build through the NE corner of the tennis courts in Estabrook Park will be 5' high with  two 12' long sections joined by a radius corner. We are planning on putting a 3' deck at the top and building the QP's with a 6.5' transition. We are going to need approximately 260 8"x8"x16" blocks to build the retaining wall to support the structure, this should cost around $215. I have a line on free scrap lumber that can be used for forms. Dirt for fill can typically be delivered for free, there are craigslist posts everyday from people who are looking for someplace to put their extra dirt. We will need to come up with another $300 or so for the rebar and steel coping. A full truck of concrete (9 cubic yards) will be enough to pour this feature plus some additional and will cost around $900. So overall we need to attempt to raise about $1500 to get a good jump start on improving Estabrook Skatepark. Our intention is to start the fundraising effort immediately and start by purchasing and placing the block, we can move forward as the funds become available to reach the next step in the construction process. I met up at the park during lunch with Jeff Klugiewicz, Cole and some others within the local BMX scene, they are pumped to join our groups together and make things happen. We are looking forward to getting everyone involved and making this a community effort. So go out and sell your old baseball card collection and donate the profits to the future of public skateparks in Milwaukee County. Stay tuned for updates on fundraising events and construction parties!

What Would Axl Rose Do? (WWARD)

So my mind has been full of all sorts of crazy fun ideas for fundraising to make these parks happen. Not sure if any of you have seen our flyer up at Estabrook Park, but here it is just in case:

This got me thinking, what are the chances Axl Rose would do a benefit concert in Estabrook Park? Probably a long shot, but what the hell, I'll give him a call. Maybe he still has that setup and would join us for a quick session!

Seriously though, fundraising is going to be huge for this effort and I have quite a few good ideas, but would love to get some more ideas from others within the community and will definitely be looking for a list of volunteers to help out with future events. Leave a comment for me on this post if you want to help out and I will get in touch to set something up.

Goals for May

We have targeted the existing skatepark within Estabrook Park on Milwaukee's North Side as our initial spot to begin improvements. We are planning to begin constructing a quarterpipe that runs along the NE corner of the park. We have removed the existing ramp that was in this location and cleared the area to begin improvements. First thing that needs to happen is a concrete block wall will have to be built to act as a retaining wall for this feature. If anyone has or would like to donate some CMU block and mortar it would be greatly appreciated. We hope to have a few good features built in this park by the end of the summer. If you would like to help out the effort, please get in contact with us so that everything can be done in a consistent manner. There is a right and a wrong way to build these features and we want to make sure everything is built properly so that it lasts for years to come. I am overloaded with information to distribute at this time so I will be adding more on a daily basis. We are all really excited to make this happen and look forward to teaming up with everyone in the community to bring this to reality.

Welcome to the Resistance!

Welcome to the new headquarters for RideMKE! We are a charitable non-profit organization committed to the development of FREE public skateparks within Milwaukee County. Our group is a mixture of people from within the local skateboard / BMX scene that have a vested interested in improving the quality and number of skateparks in the county. If you are not aware, within the Milwaukee County Parks system there is not a single public skatepark that has been sanctioned or constructed by the county, we are looking to change that status. Through a do-it-yourself (DIY) effort we are moving forward with the permission and guidance of the county to  build new facilities within some of the existing spaces that are already being used by the skate/BMX community. Look for information on our group at your local skateshop and check back here daily for new information on upcoming events. We are excited to hear from all of you and are always looking for new volunteers to join our organization.