Two years ago, then freshman Kai Whiteside was the only student skateboarding through Medallion Plaza. Now, after the creation of Elon Wheels, Whiteside is at the forefront of a growing skateboarding community that is working to create Alamance County’s first public skate park.
Elon Wheels has come a long way from the days of receiving hate comments about their skateboarding habits on the social media app Fizz. According to Whiteside, the organization used to receive comments like “the skaters need to get out of here” or “they’re annoying”. However, Whiteside said that those comments have started to disappear as the skateboarding community has grown.
“Now people are opening their eyes and wanting to be a part of this wonderful thing and realizing there's so many different outlets, so many different benefits and that’s so cool,” Whiteside said.
Elon Wheels as an organization has undergone a transformation over the last three years. It began as a town organization led by Whiteside, and now it is also a school approved organization working directly with the town of Elon to accomplish a dream Whiteside has had since his freshman year.
Whiteside believes so much has changed since the days of just him and a couple of local guys skateboarding. As Elon University began to see more and more of a presence in skateboarding on campus, Whiteside noticed a hub of connections began to form between the town and students.
“It's really become this gigantic family in this gigantic community where everyone's just supporting each other and helping each other and learning what amazing things we can do while bonded together. And I mean, this park alone is the perfect place for that,” Whiteside said.
Building a skate park has always been a goal of the town, according to Mayor Emily Sharpe.
“It's kind of always been something that we've discussed, but never really taken action on,” she said.
However, the town will begin working on this goal now that this year’s fiscal budget has $250,000 to be spent on building a skate park for the community. To accomplish this Sharpe and Town Council Member J. Quinn Ray put together an Ad-Hoc committee to help design and make decisions about the skatepark with input from the community. Ray said, the committee is broken down into many subcommittees such as design and marketing, and is made up of almost 20 parents of young skateboarders, kids, members of Elon Wheels, adults in Elon who skateboard and Elon students who expressed an interest in the project.
Ray said it is important to have the whole town get involved in the process because he feels that it is important to avoid having a skatepark being created by town officials who haven’t even skated before.
“Let's let it be designed by people that are going to use it or give input about what it's about,” Ray said.
The committee meets every third Wednesday of the month, and will likely discuss the potential locations for the skate park during their Feb. 21 meeting, according to Sharpe. Sharpe and Ray gave the committee a list of potential locations to choose from.
“The town owns property out at Beth Schmidt Park, so that is probably our greatest opportunity,” Sharpe said.
However, a potential drawback Whiteside sees to the Beth Schmidt Park location is that it's not close to downtown Elon, and as a result it’s not easy access for Elon students. Whiteside — who is a part of the Ad-Hoc committee — hopes to have the skatepark in the downtown area of Elon.
“I would love to get it in the downtown area or as close to campus as we can because I think there's major benefits to both the town and college. For one, I think the town is going to prosper a lot more because it’s going to bring in income and a lot of new faces as well. Also, the university students are going to be able to enjoy it and then bring that prosperity as well,” Whiteside said.
Ray shares this sentiment and sees the town prospering from the uniqueness of a skatepark in Alamance County.
“It'll help with our economic income and viability because it will bring people to our town, and so hopefully this will boost our downtown businesses,” Ray said.
According to Sharpe, this project is a very important one. She said it was a priority that needed to be addressed because it provides a place for adolescents and young adults to hang out in a town that lacks a surplus of recreational opportunities for young people.
Whiteside is very hopeful for the future of Elon Wheels and Elon’s skateboarding community, especially with the opportunities a skatepark could bring. “Now that I've seen people kind of grasp onto this idea, I have no idea what it's going to be like in 10 to 15 years but I think it's going to be kind of revolutionary,” Whiteside said.