DETROIT – With a grand opening featuring the most popular skateboarder in the world, Tony Hawk, Wayfinding Park was once a great skatepark located in the heart of Downtown Detroit. Still, it was never meant to last long.
“The Wayfinding park was a temporary park downtown near Campus Martius that we built a few years ago. And it was a very small park but it served the community well for a couple of years,” said Modern Skateshop and Skatepark owner, George Leichtweis.
The ramps have all been stored at the skatepark. Leichtweis is one of several people behind placing the once used ramps in an underprivileged part of town.
“We’re moving it to Butzel Recreational Center on Lydon and Wyoming in Detroit to set it back up and it’s actually gonna be four times the size of what it was downtown,” said Leichtweis.
Funded by the Rocket Community Fund and backed by Bedrock Financial, the park will now have all the same features plus a few extra ones. The hope is that the extreme sport can give the youth something productive to do.
“The good thing about skateboarding, if you keep kids occupied, they have less chance, less time to get in trouble and they do something that gets them off the couch, keeps them from playing the video games, makes them do something active, gets them exercise, get some social skills by hanging out with kids with common interest. It’s a great activity for kids,” said Leichtweis.
The park should be up and running by the beginning of next week.