The group Community Push adopted the Wigle Recreation Center park over the summer. They adopted the park at 801 Selden in Midtown from the Detroit’s Parks and Recreation Department and are turning it into a community skate park. The skate park, which will attract local skateboarders, bmxers, and inline skaters will be called “The Wig.”
Now, they are looking to fund phase two of the park through a crowdfunding campaign, in partnership with another group, ASSEMBLE. They’ve teamed up with the crowdfunding platform Patronicity and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to provide a matching grant for the funds that are raised by the public.
The crowdfunding collaboration is part of a program called Public Spaces Community Places in which Michigan residents can use the power of online contributions to develop transformational projects in their communities and be backed with a matching grant from the MEDC.
More than just building a skatepark for young people in the neighborhood, the idea behind “The Wig” was that a community-built park can replace negativity with positivity by meaningfully engaging young people, increasing activity and security, and promoting health, diversity, and responsibility. – Patronicity website
Community Push completed the first phase of the park in September with the goal of creating a destination for area youth. The first phase was completed with a few thousand dollars and volunteer labor. Phase two will help redevelop more of the parks 30,000 square feet and add:
- New obstacles (concrete and steel) including 100ft run of various transition to better the natural flow of the park
- Shipping Container for storage of tools that will be built naturally into the park and double as an obstacle
- Artistic beautification – A facelift for the entire park using Detroit artists
- Public Seating
Contributions, if you’re interested, can be made at the Patronicity website.