Welcome to Nyssa Skates!

The Taco Dinner on March 14th
was a great success -- thank you to all who donated and all who worked there, especially the Eagles who let us use the hall free of charge.

Check out the Gallery for Pictures!

We've started sending in Grants and collecting donations. We're asking for almost $500,000. We have to collect about $78,000 in cash and in-kind (time or things) by June -- right now we have about $34,000. We have many more supporters now -- the Juvenile Department, the Nyssa Chamber of Commerce, Malheur Commission on Children and Families, and the Nyssa Sports Boosters. People are starting to understand how this can help the whole community. Skate parks can increase tourism, and you can read how here.

The next meeting is Monday, May 4th, at 6:30 p.m. at 915 Emison Avenue. If you want to add something to the agenda or want to ask a question, just Contact us. You can link to Forms here, too -- to keep track of what you're donating so we can submit it with the grants. Don't forget that your donations are tax deductible -- contact us about it.

When we began this project, we thought we would do a little at a time, try to get some ramps and other things donated as we went along -- but research showed us if we did anything permanent we would be disqualified from most grants. In order to retain our eligibility and still make a at least a temporary skate park available quickly, we invested in some portable equipment. That equipment is already deterioriating and makes our quest for more funding and large grants more urgent.

When we realized there were some sizeable grants available, it was decided we should think bigger: a South Park renovation that would include the rest rooms and the play area as well as the skate park. All areas will be made accessible to disabled people (did you know kids in wheelchairs can do spectacular tricks in skate parks? Look online! )

Because of Nyssa's location, we will incorporate a theme into the design -- the Oregon Trail. There are only two theme parks in the state, and they have become destination points that bring in tourist dollars.

We're currently writing grants for the Oregon Parks Dept. and other funding organizations. We still need to match what we get with at least 20% and we need to have cash to work with as we go, so we have to continue to raise money and donations of time and "things." We carefully account for all donations and expenditures with Malheur Credit Union records, which can be viewed by anyone who asks to see them.