When Alamance County native Scott Ingalls got a call from fellow member of the town of Elon skatepark committee Peter Ustach about taking up the position as chairman of the committee, he asked his 12-year-old daughter what she thought.
“Chase your dreams,” she told him.
Since being named the chair, Ingalls has helped lead the committee one step closer to building Elon’s first ever skatepark.
The skatepark has been several years in the making and initially began with an 8,000 to 10,000 square foot design that would cost around $600,000, according to Ingalls.
To make up for this money, the committee applied for a North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant from the state of North Carolina but did not receive it. Ingalls said they missed a few things in their proposal that lost them the grant. He also said that two other municipalities in the area were awarded PARTF grants.
Ingalls said the committee is changing their designs to now accommodate for the amount of money they have fundraised and that the town of Elon has dedicated to help fund the park. Ingalls said the committee has about $350,000 for the park. Ingalls said he estimates that the park could be finished by fall or winter 2026.
Ingalls said the new design will not lose a lot of amenities, but will be about 2,000 to 3,000 square feet smaller. The committee plans to apply for another grant next year in hopes of expanding upon the current design.
Ingalls said that it is hard to get things funded in today’s economy especially with small towns like Elon.
“It's amazing that they're even footing the bill,” Ingalls said. “There's a lot of other cities and towns in this county that could far more easily acquire these funds. So we are now at a position where we still have to raise money.”
Ingalls said they still need to raise $20,000 to $25,000 more as a safety net to fund the construction of a parking lot.
“We need as many donors as we can get,” Ingalls said. “It's trying times right now. It's really hard to ask for money. There's a lot of other things going on in the world.”
Ingalls, a lifelong skater, is now 39 years old. He began skating when he was 13 years old. Growing up, Ingalls tried all kinds of sports like basketball and soccer, but skateboarding is what stuck with him.
“I hate to use the word sport, because it’s almost more of an expression of yourself. Once you learn the skills of it, you can express those skills in so many different ways,” Ingalls said. “I've also made friends with people that I would never; old, young, so and so forth, all sorts of backgrounds.”
Senior Evan Purnell, who is a member of the student and community skateboarding organization Elon Wheels and helped the committee out last year, said that a skatepark would provide a place to do skating tricks. According to the student handbook, skating on elevated surfaces like stairways or steps is not allowed.
Ingalls said he believes it is important to have a skatepark when the county has so many other recreational facilities like basketball courts, tennis courts and swimming pools. He said it provides something different for people of all incomes and backgrounds, and that it will last generations.
“That's what I look forward to, not just for me or my kids sake, but future generations, 20 years down the road. ‘Hey. I want a skateboard.’ There's a free park here. I can actually go do that,” Ingalls said. “I don't have to pay to go do that, and that's a big part of why public parks, public skate parks really changed the game for people who want to learn the sport or lifestyle.”
Purnell said he believes a skatepark would mean a lot to the local community because of the variety of people that he sees skating around the town.
“We would have people who were like four or five-years-old. We would have their parents. We would have people who are in their 40s, who used to skate Elon's campus back in the 90s,” Purnell said. “It was just crazy to see this whole community of skateboarders, and that there was really nowhere for them to go.”
Despite the excitement for the skatepark, Purnell is nervous about the ramifications on skateboarding on campus.
“I believe that once a skatepark gets built, that skateboarding is almost going to be banned off of campus,” Purnell said. “So I think that once we have a place to go, they're gonna be like, ‘All right, just go to the skatepark, don't even do it here.’ So I think that's one of the negative aspects of it, because it'll kill the campus scene.”
The next steps for the committee are setting a date for breaking ground and construction of the park, which is being done by 5th Pocket Skateparks. 5th Pocket has constructed skateparks in Hillsborough and is currently building one in Chapel Hill. Ingalls emphasized the need for more fundraising and any help that they can get.
“We'll continue to raise money with the help of anyone and everybody that would like to help,” Ingalls said. “Please get in contact with us, and we'll be glad to talk. We would more than be appreciative of that. And you would be helping do great things for Alamance County.”