Back in the 2000, skateboarding was becoming more and more, prominent and more sought after by kids.

The kind of kids I've always worked with, the kids that have some struggles and whatnot, and, maybe think outside the box and a little different.

And these are the kind of kids that jump on a skateboard and do all kinds of amazing things.

So the town of Plymouth never had a any kind of a venue for teenagers and older.

They do a phenomenal job with the Park and Rec program here, so the young kids get plenty.

But when it comes to the teenagers in high school, if you don't play a sport, for instance, then there's not a whole lot to do.

And, skateboarding was becoming so popular in in about 2009, I met a fellow named Matt Eddie and a woman named, Glenda Toomey.

And they were talking about this.

Matt was, was a skateboarder and snowboarder.

And his his wife, Lee was also involved.

They had a shop here in town.

So we started talking about how we were going to make this thing happen.

And they asked me if I wanted to get involved.

And I said, absolutely.

And, and that's kind of where it all started.

And, from 2009 to today, we've been just working on it and having several phases to go through.

But we probably raised well, I know we raised over a quarter of $1 million from the beginning.

And, in the beginning, it was really difficult.

We needed a place to have a skate park.

And Alex Ray of the Common Man Family restaurants had this property down by the river.

And, we thought that was a pretty good spot.

You can't hurt concrete.

You get a flood, it drains out, you know?

So we, Alex Ray was huge just having that property, and he was totally behind it.

The Plymouth Rotary Club was very supportive, and they donated a lot of money and did a lot of fundraising and stuff with us.

But then really, the community just kind of came together.

The beginning is we got a, an outfit called Who Skates in Maine, and, it says if your town doesn't have a skate park, it is one.

So.

So he convinced us to to, do a strip and a bowl to drop into.

And so that's what we went with initially.

And we found out, you know, it was great to have it, but you had to be fairly skilled to do that.

So you had either beginning beginners or experienced skaters.

And there wasn't a lot of room.

we had, 5 or 6 master concrete guys that worked for various companies in the area, and they came together one afternoon and they put a huge, huge pad, that just expanded everything.

It was, it was the right thing to do at the time.

And what it allowed us.

And they donated their time.

We paid for the concrete and that was it.

So, I mean, that was just a great community effort.

And, when we got that up, then kids would bring in some of their own ramps and things of that nature.

So they were able to do more things, and it was just a lot more fun and a lot more usable.

So at this point in time, we're starting to get more kids down there.

And if you were to go down there yesterday afternoon, the place is packed and it's been like that, but we had the the real turn was when we had an outfit called the Mud Dogs.

And, the Mud Dogs were made comprised of some fellas living out in Utah who were friends with Pat Moore, that snowboarder, a snowboarder, and one of them, Chris Grenier, is professional snowboarder, and he has his own, podcast now and whatnot.

But he and Ben Page and their crew came in and they worked hard for the entire summer and brought it up to where it's at now.

When you see a picture of that people really, really stepped up and just donated all kinds of equipment and materials and everything else.

So, I don't even know what the whole thing cost.

Thinking back, I just know that we've spent a lot of money and raised a lot of money to do that, and now we're really kind of heading into the last phase of things with, we're going to have a pavilion built on the, on the north end, which will be bigger than I thought it was going to be.

We have a local person here that's, that's going to take care of that for us.

And, it'll be beautiful.

It'll be the kind of pavilion where you can actually businesses can have meetings there, and people can sit up and watch their kids or whatever, just get out of the hot sun.

So it's been it's been a long road, sleepless nights.

Oh, God.

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.

You know, stuff like that.

And it's just been an incredible community effort.

And, I mean, I think every community, when something happens or something's going on, that's good, they all, they'll kind of pitch in and, the Plymouth community is, is pretty special.

You know, we have the university here, which is a godsend.

And, we just have a lot of people that are interested and dedicated to the skate park.

I mean, the kids that use it, they take care of the trash and everything else.

We don't have to worry about a thing.

Leave it out there for the town to pick up, you know, and the weekend.

And that's that's about it.

But, it's been a been a great endeavor.

It's been a lot of people involved in it.

And, I don't know, I think it makes Plymouth special And, it was, it was pretty incredible.

We found, too, that, you know, if you go down there on a Saturday morning, you got all kinds of moms and dads and little kids out in the skate park and the pump track, and there are, you know, tricycles and scooters and all this other stuff, and folks who bring a sandwich or whatever for the kids snacks and, so it was really being utilized by everybody And I was standing there talking to a guy and looking, and I saw long, long lines, everybody just waiting patiently to get, you know, all very positive, all the kids helping the little kids.

And, you know, I turned to him and I said, you know, they talk about skateboarders being like, you know, bad guys and this and that and the other thing and attitudes.

But look what look what's going on.

These kids are having fun.

The older kids are being like big brothers.

They're teaching the little kids.

The little kids are impressed.

And I said, this is what we want.

And that's what that's what it brings.