An Okotoks mom saw the benefits of the skate park and is championing the purchase of a mobile park for the town’s south side.
Ardis Agustsdottir was first introduced to the skateboard park at the Okotoks Recreation Centre when her three children, now five, nine and 11 years old, took up boarding and scootering. It was a haven during the COVID shutdowns – but it was busy.
“It was probably one of the biggest saving graces through the pandemic, after so many changes and so many things affecting the kids in different ways, going to the skate park,” said Agustsdottir. “Clearly that wasn’t just the experience for our family. There were so many people there all the time.”
She said taking her children there opened her eyes to how a sense of community was being developed between children and adults of all ages who came out to ride at the park.
The leadership, kindness and co-operation exhibited by older teens to young children warmed her heart.
“It was just inspiring to see those kind of mentoring moments,” said Agustsdottir. “Just kindness, generally, that would come from both really little kids and big kids. If anybody scraped a knee everybody rallied. It was a great place to be, a lot of community, and we loved it.”
However, she noticed the park was often too busy for younger riders or those with anxiety or shyness to feel comfortable.
In September, she saw a social media post by Coun. Tanya Thorn asking for people to name their favourite park in town.
“I thought I’d let her know our favourite park is the skate park, and man do we need a second one,” said Agustsdottir.
From there, she was set on a path she never knew she’d take.
Agustsdottir set up a meeting with the Town and was introduced to the Recreation Master Plan, in which she said a second permanent skate park falls below a few higher-priority items as Okotoks grows.
At the same time, she heard the City of Calgary was offering up five mobile skate parks with accompanying trailers, which had been intended to be staffed and used for programming in the city but financial challenges deemed them unviable.
Agustsdottir went into full gear researching the mobile parks, and when she saw how they worked thought they would suit Okotoks’ needs. She encouraged the Town to put in a bid, and in November council decided to place a bid for up to $17,000 to purchase one of the parks.
“I thought this would be a great interim solution for our town,” said Agustsdottir. “It provides flexible needs, more outdoor recreation, and could sell it all day just from talking about the current one we have.”
The Town’s bid was unsuccessful, but Agustsdottir said it’s still worthwhile for Okotoks to investigate purchasing a mobile skate park to have second option for residents.
Susan Laurin, community services director for Okotoks, said the City of Calgary opted to keep its mobile parks with community association within its boundaries, prompting the Town to research costs of purchasing on its own.
“Administration just became aware in the last 10 days of a new grant program that is out, that encourages healthy and outdoor activities, especially outdoor recreation and active lifestyles,” said Laurin.
She said the Town will be putting forward an application for the grant to purchase a mobile park, and hopes to hear results of the submission by early April. If successful, the Town could have a skate park ready to roll by the end of summer.
“If not, we will consider putting a mobile skateboard park in the 2022 operating budget as a capital project,” said Laurin.
Agustsdottir was pleased to hear the Town was still pursuing a mobile skate park.
She said while it’s not a guarantee, she’s grateful to have been heard and to have had a hand in moving the initiative forward.
“It often just takes one person and some community support to get things going,” said Agustsdottir. “Despite having to get out of my comfort zone to do that, I felt like it was worth it for the kids.”
