The Orillia Skateparkers dropped into Monday’s council meeting requesting the city take action on a long-awaited new skate park at Foundry Park.
The grassroots organization has received hundreds of signatures in a recent call to action to build a new skate park, as well as hundreds of submissions about what the skateboarding community would like to see in the new skate park.
“On May 26, we put up a call to action and have been collecting signatures from the community about the skate park and to get more information for what the community wanted,” said Mark Watson, Orillia Skateparkers president. “In the first week, we received 348 signatures, and little notes and long notes about what people would like to see.
“As of today at this meeting, we're at 570 submissions.”
Organized as a non-profit in 2018, the Orillia Skateparkers have raised tens of thousands of dollars towards the goal of a new Orillia skate park, meant to replace the aging facility along the waterfront.
“We've … been fundraising and building a lot of support through the local community,” said Dylan Court, senior vice-president at Orillia Skateparkers. “We make this awesome merchandise, all designed locally and printed locally, and then we also do tons of events.”
Through their efforts, which include artwork auctions that raised $14,000, the Orillia Skateparkers currently have around $30,000, Court said, which the group “will happily donate when the park is an official project.”
Watson highlighted that skateboarding has been part of the Summer Olympics since 2020, hinting a new park “could be a training ground for future Olympians,” and he said skate parks are a good, relatively low-maintenance facility for a variety of athletes of all ages.
“It will be used by skateboarders, scooters, people in wheelchairs, roller-bladers, roller skaters, pogo sticks – anything that rolls can pretty much go on a skate park and have a good time,” he said. “It is a diverse area for men, women, children, anybody that wants to try it. It's a very open activity, and skateboarding has been proven to be a great physical and mental health activity.”
“And it costs a fraction of any other organized sport that's out there.”
The city approved $110,000 in the 2022 budget for community consultation and design work for the potential Foundry Park location, next to the Orillia Recreation Centre, with the final of three planned community workshops taking place last year.
Following the presentation, Coun. Tim Lauer said he believes the park is slated for next year’s city budget, adding council is “excited about the project.”
Several members of council praised the group for work it has carried out over the past several years.
“I have to say your group is a model for how to get things done,” said Coun. David Campbell. “You brought this to council, it was an unfunded project, and you decided, well, then we're going to start fundraising and we're going to make this happen.”
Coun. Jay Fallis credited the group with going “above and beyond” in its efforts to bring a new skate park to the city, and asked whether the park is likely to draw visitors to Orillia.
“We go to, probably, 10 parks a summer, and we'll drive up to like three or four hours to get to a park,” responded Court. “That's not just something that we do. That's something that a lot of skateboarders do, and scooters and everyone, so (it will) definitely be a draw.”
“One thing about our current park is that if I didn't already live here, I probably wouldn't choose to move here because of that park because it's not up to par,” he added.
Later in Monday’s meeting, council directed staff to assist the group with fundraising questions, and to request their input on the upcoming parks, recreation and culture master plan update.
