MDISA welcomes two new board members this month: Aaron Mitchell and Rob Wheat. Aaron has agreed to serve as our Treasurer and will be helping to organize our accounting process and keeping track of donors. Rob works for Cadillac Mtn Sports as a buyer and brings a lot of knowledge of the industry, vendors, and equipment. Welcome! That brings our board to a total of ten, including  Dave LaValle, Karen Svenson, Dan Vashon, Lee Patterson, Jon Ho, Josh Malloy, Kevin Downey, and myself (Deborah Page).  All of these folks are putting in a ton of time and energy and thought towards this project; showing up for meetings, building ramps, cooking, getting donations, writing grants, and driving long distances! If skateboarding/youth recreation is important to you, and you know any of these people, please thank them for the hard work they do in support of this effort. Everyone appreciates being recognized for their work and commitment.  THANKS!!!

..and now, the BIG news for the summer:

MDISA is planning a big summer fundraising event to continue to raise money and awareness for a public park on Mount Desert Island. We purchased (cheap) almost 100 blank skate decks from a local mill and will be distributing them to area artists in the next few weeks. Artists can re-create the boards however they like, and with any medium. (We’ve got painters, sculptors, and photographers participating!) The completed art will be on display during the month of July at the Jesup Library in Bar Harbor and other locations across MDI. Stay tuned for more information about a kick-off event at the library, the on-line auction, and a closing silent auction and gala in August.

This will be a big event for us, so if you are interested in helping out, please let us know. We’ll need support to hang the show, create publicity posters, photograph decks for the on-line auction, provide food and beverage for the gala, and organize a kid’s art event. It will be a really fun event to be part of – and towards a great cause to bring skateboarding into the mainstream here on MDI.

By the way, I can’t take credit for this idea- a friend of mine in Bend, Oregon told me about a similar event in his town, and after some research I found a few other groups that have used this idea. Click on some of the links below to see some examples.

All for now- Deborah


http://www.examiner.com/x-23791-Phoenix-Autism–Parenting-Examiner~y2009m11d3-Skateboard-art-auction-to-raise-funds-for-autism
http://www.montanaskatepark.org/ondeck/gallery.php?albumid=5334644846787357009
http://www.divisionstreetskatepark.org/art-show-auction-push.html