CORYDON, Ind. — Samuel Miller and Gary Graves have been skateboarding since they were kids.
They've spent the last 15 years trying to share their passion and solidify it in their hometown of Corydon.
Now, their dreams are becoming a reality.
A vacant plot of land that used to be an auto dealership along Indian Creek, is now set to be 8,000 square feet of concreate skating bliss.
Miller and Graves are bringing a skate park to their town.
"It's like an itch you just can't like scratch," Graves said. "And growing up in, like, the Elizabeth/Corydon area, we never really had a place to call her own to go around and skate at."
A $350,000 grant from the Harrison County Community Foundation for the skate park construction set these dreams into motion.
Corydon also turned to crowdfunding, to allow the community to chip in for future maintenance. The goal is to raise $50,000 for the park by Dec. 23, which will be matched by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.
"The skate park opens up and broadens that and gives the kids who want to do their solo activities, ride their scooters, bikes, skateboards, gives them a place to do it safely and to express themselves. And that's that's the big key to it, is letting the youth express themselves in a way that they want to," Miller said. "Having this park now is going to give kids that good outlet space to do that in a safe place and public property, not private property. So that's kind of important."
Some of the park amenities, designed by Hunger Skateparks, include the only Fingerboard feature in the southern Indiana region spectator seating, transition hip, flat rail, banked hip, volcano quarter pipe, and a rain garden.
First Harrison Bank sponsored the banked hip, and Duke Energy sponsored both the volcano quarter pipe and the rain garden.
"It's just been so overwhelming to see the response from the community being so supportive," Graves said. "Now we have something to actually show for everything we've pushed for for so long."
Construction on the park is expected to start in February 2025 and be complete by summer 2025.
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