On Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, the Dorian Zev Kweller Memorial Skatepark started the first step in construction at Founders Park. A grueling process that started in 2014 is now in the works, starting at the groundbreaking.
The skate club at DSHS will now have a permanent skate park to hold skate nights thanks to the community who helped create it.
“We believe in the need for additional recreational opportunities for our children,” the skate park’s fundraising/information site said (www.dripskatepark.com).
The community will have access to the park from dusk to dawn and the skate club will now have an official place meant for skating to meet, including many other skaters in Dripping Springs.
“In 2017 when I was a senior at Drip, we created a skate club,” graduate and teacher Naya Kaniga said. “I was told there was a skate club before, but it kind of just died out. It was my friend and I, we were skating after school but we’d get kicked out by the APs, so we were just like ‘Oh, alright, well if we make a club out[side] of [the school], then we can’t get in trouble, we can skate out the school.”
Skate club began as a small club of three people, which has now eventually evolved over time which helped the case of community members in need of the skate park.
“We have skate night after school, which is like the community organization in Drip with skateboarding, which is pretty much how we’re doing the groundbreaking ceremony,” Kaniga said.
Skate night is held on Thursday afternoons at Ranch Park until 7pm. A member of the skate club will bring blocks and rails while the skaters are also able to skate inside the concrete area; fortunately now, with the Founders Park skate park building progress will let them have a place to board with cement used instead of concrete.
“November 2014 filled City Hall with skatepark supporters and presented to DS Parks and Rec. April 2015, City Council approved Open Space Master Plan and increased the skate park’s priority level,” according to the website (www.dripskatepark.com).
This process has been going on for almost a decade and the plans have come to life after many efforts of raising money and posing city bonds for this park. Along with the creation of the park, the community unanimously came together to name the park after Dorian Kweller who the community lost too soon.
“I think getting the community together and having that moment together…We’re nearing the anniversary [of his passing on] the 27th and I think this is a good thing for us,” Kaniga said. “It’s interesting, the timing is almost poetic. It just helps for us to get back together [to] remember and be with our community.”
