Grand opening for Millet Skatepark set for August 9

MILLET -- The grand opening for the Town of Millet's new Skatepark will take place on Saturday.

This comes after years of planning and fundraising for the park, which was led by the Friends of Millet Youth Society. One of the organization's directors, Kelly Winkler, says the project was able to eventually move forward despite not receiving enough support when it was first discussed four and a half years ago.

"We decided to start it up again, and get it going, and this time we had the support that wasn't there before," said Winkler in conversation with the One. "This time the town was really good, they gave us the land, and told us we had two years to fund raise for it."

Winkler says that not enough capital was raised during the first two years of fundraising, which led the non-profit to apply for a two-year extension from Millet Council. She says that after that period, enough money had been raised to move forward with the project.

"When we got enough money together, we went to Council for the third time, and they gave us permission to commence the build," said Winkler.

The design process for the skatepark was spearheaded by Tara Ainsworth -- President of the Friends of Millet Youth Society -- who contracted PlayQuest due to their ability to provide ready-made design plans for the park. This gave the non-profit the ability to avoid additional costs associated with hiring an architect and grant writer.

The grand opening for the skatepark is scheduled for Saturday, August 9th, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"We're going to do a ribbon cutting and we're going to invite all of our past and present sponsors," said Winkler. "We'll have contests, swag bags, Town Council is going to come and cook some hotdogs, and we've got lots of businesses on board to provide food and that sort of thing. It's going to be a pretty good time."

She adds that following Saturday's grand opening, the Friends of Millet Youth Society will then begin fundraising for their next project. This is expected to take place on the land adjacent to the new skatepark.