Do you feel like every city should have a skate park? Well that's the way Sean Nasrey feels! Sean is just one of the master minds behind a movement to create a new skate park in Clawson. This park isn't just a few rails and wooden boxes like some other city skate parks either. They plan on creating an amazing cement park right in the heart of Clawson.
As you can imagine, attempting to make a project of this size happen is quite the undertaking. You have to deal with the local government, the residents, and come up with a whole heck of a lot of money. Luckily for the group behind the Clawson Skate Park Project, they already have full support of the city and the people living in it. So now they just need to come up with the funds. The group has been doing a ton of fundraising at different local events, such as the Farmers' Market. But, this weekend is one of their biggest fund raisers yet.
This Saturday night head to The Berkley Front for the Clawson Skate Park Benefit Concert. The event will feature a raffle with great prizes and a 50/50 raffle, as well as music from Oak City Roots, Building Birds, These Curious Thoughts, Mental Health Day and Kate Jablonski. It only costs $6 to get in, with all of the proceeds going right towards creating this awesome skate park.
Before Saturday's big event we wanted to catch up with the folks behind the Clawson Skate Park Project to get all of the details on the park and the event. Check out what Sean Nasrey had to say.
HID- Let's start off by learning about the proposed skate park. Where in Clawson would it be located?
Sean- "It will be located right inside the Clawson City Park. If you are familiar with the park as it stands now, we will be in place of where the roller hockey and volleyball courts are now. They are being moved into the north east side of the park instead."
HID- Is it going to be indoor or outdoor?
HID- Is it going to be indoor or outdoor?
Sean- "It is going to be outdoor and we are keeping all trees and current landscapes as they are and just working with and around them. We are all about keeping mother nature happy as can be!"
HID- When do you plan on starting construction on the park?
HID- When do you plan on starting construction on the park?
Sean- "We are hoping to break ground spring 2015. We broke it down into two phases, so we are still full steam ahead on fundraising for phase two."
HID- When do you anticipate it being open to the public?
HID- When do you anticipate it being open to the public?
Sean- "As soon as the cement is dry next year we are going to have a huge opening day celebration with live music, pro skaters, vendors, food trucks, the works!"
HID- Why do you think Clawson needs a skate park and why did you decide to start the movement to make it happen?
HID- Why do you think Clawson needs a skate park and why did you decide to start the movement to make it happen?
Sean- "Personally being a skater for 30 years myself; I think every city needs a skate park, hahaha! I grew up in the days where there were no skate parks around. After middle school my friends & I would throw our boards on our bikes and rode until we found a rad new skate spot to shred until the sun came down. If we were caught the police either stomped our boards in half or just confiscated them. We had absolutely no place to practice the art that we truly loved. The sport has continuously grown over the years and around here everywhere you look someone is skateboarding or long boarding around town. I don't want my kids to grow up with the same grief that we had to go through so we decided to act on it instead of just wishing for a safe skate spot. There are a few skate parks around town these days, but none of them are taken care of and being mostly wooden or prefab parks they are either falling apart or dangerous to skate on. We are doing a full out in ground cement skate plaza. When we originally proposed our idea of an 18,000 square foot skate park to the city, they loved the idea so much that they granted us space for a 31,000 square foot skate park. Our Clawson City Park is truly our city's gem and there was no other place we could imagine having it. We were proud to be a part of last millage (August 5th, 2014) and our community was behind us 100%. So knowing that the city officials as well as the community both believed in what we are doing was huge for us. That was a huge stepping stone for us and is the reason that we are able to start upon phase one in the spring."
HID- This weekend you have a benefit for the park. Give us the details! Where is it? When is it? What can attendees expect? Why should someone come out to the show?
HID- This weekend you have a benefit for the park. Give us the details! Where is it? When is it? What can attendees expect? Why should someone come out to the show?
Sean- "It is going to be this Saturday, September 13th at The Berkley Front (3087 12 Mile Rd, Berkley, MI 48072 - 248 547-3331) from 9 p.m. - 2 a.m. 21+ with a minimum donation of $6 of which 100% of the proceeds go straight to the Clawson Skate Park Project. There will be huge raffle prizes all night long and four amazing bands whom all donated their time for us. We have also teamed up with Lyft to make sure that all of our supporters have a safe ride home!"
HID- Can you tell us about the bands playing?
HID- Can you tell us about the bands playing?
Sean- "Oak City Roots is a new acoustic indy group that got it's start last year and has been playing many local festivals, fundraisers and local clubs. The singer Kate Jablonski has a voice that has been compared to that of Adele and even received a huge standing ovation at Arts, Beats & Eats two weekends ago.
Building Birds are a brand new alt/indy band that just signed with ShoreBird Records. Their fearless leader, Ashley Peacock, is a road warrior who has been touring since his high school days. His solo act along with his last band, The Times, had huge success on both the road as well as featured music on major TV shows. His new band Building Birds is just a continuation of great music. His voice is unreal, his range is unreal and you truly have to see it to believe it.
These Curious Thoughts are as strange as the band name. Their lyricist is from London, UK and the songwriter is from here in Detroit. Their creations have been compared to a collaboration between The Beatles, Frank Zappa & Trent Reznor. Every song is insane and written in a completely different genre. Depending what songs they decide to play out of their six full length CD's it could be calm, ferocious or just plain insane (hence their latest albums title "Inventing Dr Sutherland And His Travelling Hospital").
Mental Health Day started with members of a band that once went by the name Nebali whose lead singer would often play his piano with his stool, only from 10 feet away with several attempts (one of the greatest live bands). Since then two of the members have gone on to create this singer songwriter indy project. The once crazed pianist/vocalist is now on guitar and his songwriting is right up there with Wilco and Damian Rice. Such a great band to see and one to watch out for for sure!"
HID- If someone can't make it out this weekend, but still wants to help, what should they do?
Building Birds are a brand new alt/indy band that just signed with ShoreBird Records. Their fearless leader, Ashley Peacock, is a road warrior who has been touring since his high school days. His solo act along with his last band, The Times, had huge success on both the road as well as featured music on major TV shows. His new band Building Birds is just a continuation of great music. His voice is unreal, his range is unreal and you truly have to see it to believe it.
These Curious Thoughts are as strange as the band name. Their lyricist is from London, UK and the songwriter is from here in Detroit. Their creations have been compared to a collaboration between The Beatles, Frank Zappa & Trent Reznor. Every song is insane and written in a completely different genre. Depending what songs they decide to play out of their six full length CD's it could be calm, ferocious or just plain insane (hence their latest albums title "Inventing Dr Sutherland And His Travelling Hospital").
Mental Health Day started with members of a band that once went by the name Nebali whose lead singer would often play his piano with his stool, only from 10 feet away with several attempts (one of the greatest live bands). Since then two of the members have gone on to create this singer songwriter indy project. The once crazed pianist/vocalist is now on guitar and his songwriting is right up there with Wilco and Damian Rice. Such a great band to see and one to watch out for for sure!"
HID- If someone can't make it out this weekend, but still wants to help, what should they do?
Sean- "They can email us direct at ClawsonSkatePark@gmail.com or through our Facebook page.
If anyone wants to join our committee, donate items to raffle offer, donate their time to any of our events, purchase our fundraising swag either in person or from ClawsonSkate.com or just help spread the word that would be greatly appreciated!"
HID- Anything else you think our readers should know?
If anyone wants to join our committee, donate items to raffle offer, donate their time to any of our events, purchase our fundraising swag either in person or from ClawsonSkate.com or just help spread the word that would be greatly appreciated!"
HID- Anything else you think our readers should know?
Sean- "There are only four of us directors here on our committee and having been working our tails off to get this park approved, financed & built all on our own. Stephanie, Christina, Tina & myself. We have put in countless hours working every Sunday at the Clawson Farmers Market, every Clawson event, bottle drives, fundraising events, concert series, bar crawls, mom to mom sales, auctions, raffles, door to door flyers, etc. We would appreciate all the help that we can get!
Our event link is as follows: https://www.facebook.com/events/319410231568614. If this event is a success we would love to continue our concert series and hope to move it to a larger scale venue, larger ticket auctions, more amazing local bands all to get this phase two kick started in the @ss!!! If anyone is able to donate raffle/auction items, money, pop/water, food, etc. for us please remember that we are a non-profit organization and can provide a tax write off for any donations you are able to provide."
Our event link is as follows: https://www.facebook.com/events/319410231568614. If this event is a success we would love to continue our concert series and hope to move it to a larger scale venue, larger ticket auctions, more amazing local bands all to get this phase two kick started in the @ss!!! If anyone is able to donate raffle/auction items, money, pop/water, food, etc. for us please remember that we are a non-profit organization and can provide a tax write off for any donations you are able to provide."
As Sean mentioned, for more details on the Clawson Skate Park Project, visit ClawsonSkate.com or head over and "like" them on Facebook here.
~C
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