Page 77 - midland

“We come here almost every day,” says Gonzales. “We live close by, and we can walk or ride our bikes. It’s our hobby, and we love it!”

While Gonzales has been a skateboard enthusiast for approximately two years, Garcia has only been skateboarding for about seven months. “Unlike organized sports, such as basketball or football, skateboarding has no set arena or rules,” explains Garcia. “We do our own thing. It’s kinda like an ‘art form,’ but it’s also a sport.”

The park, which frst opened in spring 2003, is named for William Wooten and Sam Geer, two Midland pre-teens who were accidentally killed in October 1998 while skating on Midland Drive. A couple of months after their death, William’s mother, Tammy Wooten, contacted a group of concerned parents, who just a year earlier had joined forces to organize a group known as the Citizens for Midland Skaters.

Led by Lisa and Don Sutton, Dennis and Pam Sledge and John and Terry Staub, the group’s goal

was to procure a safe environment in which Midlanders could skate and skateboard. After the tragic deaths of Wooten and Geer, Tammy joined the group and became their spokesperson. Then, there was no stopping this powerful force of parents.

The group met with Chuck Swallow, Director of Development for the City of Midland, and gathered over 500 names on a petition, which they presented to the city council to show that there was indeed an interest in building a skate park. Some council members were reluctant to approve construction of the park because of its rather high price tag. However, Wooten prevailed by contacting Mike Canon, the mayor of Midland at the time, on several different occasions in order to get the park on the council’s agenda. Her efforts were rewarded on Tuesday, September 24, 2002, when the Midland City Council voted unanimously to build the William-Sam Memorial Skate Park. Over $400,000 was raised to fund construction through the city’s participation and through private