With school out for the summer, many kids and teens are enjoying their three month break joining youth baseball leagues, playing pick-up basketball games in the Community Center gym and taking a dive in the St. Peter Public Pool. But sixth grader Maceo KelseyBassett knows that not every kid in St. Peter has a place to play their favorite sport.
For Maceo, skateboarding is both a hobby and a lifestyle. While other students ran track or hit the golf course, the St. Peter Middle Schooler spent his school year connecting with fellow skateboarders. However, to actually go out and shred with his friends, Maceo would need to travel out to Mankato to enjoy some half-pipes.
But Maceo and his father David KelseyBassett are hoping to change that by bringing a little taste of the skateboarding lifestyle to St. Peter. On Saturday, June 15, the father and son are bringing a pop-up skate park, food trucks, live music and more to Veteran’s Memorial Park for the inaugural St. Peter Skate Jam to benefit the construction of the St. Peter Skate Park.
“This was the culmination of [Maceo] trying to get people to skateboard with in St. Peter. As we got closer to the end of school, I thought maybe we could do a skate jam,” said David. “We could pick a date and invite people and as we got closer to the end of school I thought maybe we could do skate jam. We could pick a date and then invite people in St. Peter to go skateboarding and make it a public event.”
Between the hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. community members are invited to bring out their boards for a night of gnarlyness in the Veterans Memorial Park hockey rink. Boarders can have fun navigating custom-made obstacles constructed by David KelseyBassett and Dan Kapernick while competing in contests for beginners and more advanced riders. Perform the highest ollie, the longest manual or the best trick and winners may just go home with an event t-shirt featuring a design drawn by Maceo.
The Skate Jam isn’t just an opportunity to skateboard in St. Peter, it’s also a chance to celebrate skating culture as a whole. The event features a multitude of skating-themed market vendors such as artist Ami Black Ribbon Raymond and her hand-painted skateboards, a skateboard-themed coffee roaster handing out free samples and raffle prizes from the Northside Boards skate shop out of Northfield and 3rd Lair Skate Park out of Golden Valley.
All day long, the Skate Jam will be featuring a lineup of live music perfect to shred your board to. The event will include a Minneapolis vinyl DJ playing 90’s, Zoo York-era hip-hop, punk rock and post-punk sounds from KMSU’s David Perron, original acoustic tunes by Montana Tolzmann and a closing performance by rapper Just Shine. The Mankato hip-hop artist, also known as Sean Asplen, will also be serving as the Skate Jam’s announcer calling out tricks as skaters compete in the contests.
The Skate Jam will also feature food trucks on every corner, including Mexican cuisine.
The event is free, but donations and raffle funds will go towards ongoing efforts to finance a permanent pop-up skate park facility at Veterans Memorial Park. Haley Moore, who has spearheaded recent efforts to raise money for the St. Peter Skate Park in collaboration with the city of St. Peter, reported that over $20,000 has been raised toward the $60,000 project goal.
“There’s a lot of kids that don’t do those other sports, so they’ll be able to go and tear up the skatepark and have a good afternoon doing that,” said Moore. “I try to help that side of the town.”
David KelseyBassett professed to be a skateboarder himself when he was a teenager, and even went as far as building a half-pipe in his front yard. He’s picked up interest in the sport again after Maceo got into skateboarding five years ago. The event organizer is hoping for a high turnout to build up community engagement in the skate park.
“I hope my son finds people to skate with and I hope it brings interest in skateboarding to St. Peter. That’s what my big hope is, it gets the ball rolling,” said David. ”I’m not sure who is going to show up but I hope a lot of people show up because we’ve been doing the legwork.”
Maceo has also taken an active role in raising money for the St. Peter Skate Park. The 12-year-old recently debuted his “Boneless and Hopeful” series, a collection of skate decks with printed drawings at the Arts Center of Saint Peter. All of the profits from the skate decks sold at the Arts Center will be donated to the construction of the new skate park.
“It feels pretty good because I’ve wanted a skate park and a skate jam in St. Peter for a little bit,” Maceo said on organizing the event.
The preteen advised parents to consider bringing their kids even if they’re new to skateboarding.
“Even if they don’t skateboard, they can learn to skateboard and then go,” said Maceo.
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