Jun 29, 2008

Changing lives with skateboards

Palo Alto nonprofit aims to assist at-risk youths

By Sarah Frier / Daily News Correspondent

Lifetime skateboarder Gary Holl has vivid memories of his introduction to the sport.

It was 1975, and 14-year-old Holl was finishing up a paper route for the Palo Alto Times.

He said he stopped at the corner of Amarillo and Louis roads, mesmerized by some skateboarders weaving down the hill like they were surfing. The wheels were quiet; the motion looked effortless.

Now he's founded Board Rescue, a nonprofit organization to provide low-income children with new skateboards and safety equipment. The sport, he said, can change lives.

"Skateboarding has given me so much, and I just want to share that joy with everyone," Holl said. "It sounds cheesy, but that's how it is."

Three weeks since its launch, Board Rescue already has attracted corporate sponsorship and donations from Santa Cruz Skateboards, Independent Trucks Co. and others.

The next step will be partnering with organizations like the YMCA and the Giving Tree to donate the equipment.

"We want to make sure the skateboards get to kids who are at-risk who will use a skateboard as a way to steer themselves from trouble," Holl said.

Chrissie Ponciano, FLEX coordinator for the Richmond District YMCA in San Francisco, said its skate program already has received a donation from Board Rescue.

"His donation will help open up the skateboard demographic and open the community's eyes about skateboarding," Ponciano said. "(The recipients) can focus their energies on a sport that will help with their confidence and discipline."

Board Rescue's three-person board of directors, who have cumulatively skateboarded more than 75 years, drew on their own experiences to design the program.

They'll only collect new equipment because they want the youths to fall in love with skateboarding and do it for a while - Holl said he doesn't want them to start out on equipment that's falling apart.

"You don't know how close the used stuff is to breaking," he said.

People interested in the program have been calling from as far away as China, but Holl said Board Rescue will operate in the Bay Area for now and expand in a few years.

For the kind of youth who doesn't end up in organized sports, an activity like skateboarding teaches independence and obstacle management, Holl said.

"The terrain changes, and you have to figure out how to handle it," Holl said. "It's like life."

E-mail Sarah Frier at sfrier@dailynewsgroup.com.