Skater community looks to prove interest in a Lafayette skatepark

Organizer hopes a skater call-out and tournament Sunday at Lafayette's CAT Park will be the first of many … until a dedicated skate park is built

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SKATER COMMUNITY LOOKS TO PROVE INTEREST IN A NEW SKATEPARK

Greg Simpson is on a mission to get a skate park in Greater Lafayette.

A skateboarder since he was 6, the music teacher at Lafayette Tecumseh Junior High has been traveling the state this summer to check features at skateparks, wondering the time – and posting profusely on social media – about why Greater Lafayette doesn’t have something similar.

(Photo: Greg Simpson)

On Sunday, Simpson is organizing what he’s calling the Lafayette Skater Call-Out, an afternoon event at the city’s CAT Park with food trucks, DJs and skating tournaments. The idea is to show that there’s a skater community big enough to get support from the cities to get interested, too. (The community’s lone skate park, operated over the past decade by Faith Ministries, was disassembled earlier this year to make way for an expansion of high school athletic facilities at Faith Community Center along Indiana 26. Faith officials say a new version is in discussions.)

“It shouldn't be up to an individual citizen – me – building temporary skateparks in town once a month,” Simpson said. “I've been paying taxes in town for nine years now and demand my money go to a skatepark for my kids and their friends, and everyone else in town who enjoys skateboarding and other roller sports.”

Question: What got this event started? Why do it?