Boys plan projects to bring skatepark dreams to life

Three-sixty's, bam-drops, three-set -- all words used in a teenage boy's vocabulary, especially if he's a skateboarder.

"My friends and I enjoy skateboarding; however we have no place to skateboard," said Derek Beebe, an avid skater.

A few boys from our town are in desperate need of a new skate park, he said. Beebe, Jared Bailey and Tony Roe are three boys who made it their goal to include a skate park in McCook's budget.

"You can only skateboard around the town so much until it starts to get boring," Beebe said.

They had a few pieces of equipment in one of the parks but it was taken out because it was unsafe.

"Everywhere we go they make us leave," Beebe lamented. "We have been searching the Internet and have seen a lot of different skate parks in many sizes across the state. We are not looking into a big one, just one that has some safe equipment yet challenging for us as we progress in our skate boarding skills," Beebe said.

"We just want somewhere we can skate, and have fun," Roe added.

The boys have been working towards their goal of $70,000 to earn this new skate park. Some of the fundraisers include a raffle in which they raffled off a new skateboard from Trustwor-thy, donated by Tom Poore. The winner of the new skateboard was Cade Hiatt, son of Bobbie and Doug Hiatt.

"I don't really skateboard right now, but it would be a nice thing to have around if I did want to," Hiatt said.

Future fundraisers will continue until they meet their goal.

They are hoping to hold more raffles possibly a DVD player and planning special events such as dances and skateoffs. The boys will be at the Home Show, thanks to Cindy and Greg Hays they will have information available in hopes of getting the adults in the community involved, said Sue Beebe, mother of Derek and coordinator of Operation McCook Skate Park stated.