Wild in the Park

I am rather a sedate sort of person -- turning the pages of a book is my idea of aerobic exercise -- but even I was excited to hear about last weekend's Wild in The Park. The event was sponsored by Volcom, Inc., the national retailer of skateboarding clothing, and hosted here in American Fork at Greenwood Skate Park.

The first stop on a nationwide tour, the event drew more than 200 competitors, with 300 more coming just to watch. Volcom says this is the largest Wild in the Park they've had outside of the championships. There were no injuries, no incidents, just a great, fun day, and two of the three division winners were American Fork's own Chandler Seipert and Brodie Penrod. They will join the other winners at the national finals in Arizona this September.

Why, you ask, did I interrupt the riveting book I was reading to share this with you?

Two reasons:

1. Because I think the Greenwood Skate Park -- something I agitated for way back when -- has done a terrific job of providing AF's kids with fun, free entertainment, and because it beautifies our city by keeping their plywood skateboard-jumping-contraptions off our sidewalks.

2. Because this is a great example of cultural tourism -- or in this case, countercultural tourism -- bringing good money to American Fork. I don't have any actual figures to share, but if just twenty percent of Saturday's crowd bought a hamburger while they were here, or filled up the gas tank, then that was a significant boost to the City's job base and tax revenues.

For full details and some great pictures, follow this link and feel the energy.

Now, back to my book . . .