This is a petition started by skateboarding advocate and Danbury local Pedro Pereira in hopes to raise support to allow skateboarding inside the Harambe Youth Center again after 15 years of program participation being recently stripped. I thank you in advance for reading this and for signing your name. Your support will be used when I begin requesting permission from Connecticut Institute For Communities directors to allow skateboarding inside the center again this winter, hopefully before the snow starts falling! We are unstoppable with numbers so please please share! Let's get this to 1,000 signatures! Written below is a bit about the history of the center as well as some important skateboarding history.

“-The Bill S. Curtis Harambe Youth Center, located on 54 West Street in Downtown City Center Danbury, has been in existence since 1965. The program’s mission is to assist, support and advocate on behalf of largely low-income, minority young people in connection with their educational, social, recreational, and personal goals while surrounded in a safe environment.-”

“-Connecticut Institute For Communities, Inc. serves as the fiscal Agent for Harambee, and assists in advancing the Center’s programs and services, supported in part by the City of Danbury and the United Way of Western Connecticut.-”

“-Connecticut Institute For Communities, Inc. (CIFC) is a locally based independent, non-profit, IRS-recognized Section 501(C)(3) Community Development Corporation (CDC), whose mission is dedicated to advancing our communities, and fostering greater opportunities for low and moderate-income individuals and families of our service areas, through a combination of health and education programs, and housing and economic development projects. It is the only such organization in Western Connecticut.-” 

The above three paragraphs are taken directly from:

https://www.harambeeyouth.com/about-us &

https://www.cifc.org/about-us 

The reality about the center though is that it has been low-funded for decades. Any participant who has spent time inside could tell you that. And I’m sure CIFC understands the need to keep it alive, but it's always seemed like the center was barely kicking for as long as I can remember, 10 or so years. Yet the building is still a staple in our community and with the gracious willpower and love of Bill Curtis, it was the home away from home for hundreds if not thousands of youth in the Danbury community. That home away from home means a lot more to those who don't have the best homes. May he rest in peace as he passed earlier this year. Bill Curtis served as director for nearly 50 years and retired in 2016. People, not just kids, could play basketball or other sports, box, work out, dance, act, sing, paint, play pool, hang out, teach, learn, grow, and build community, for decades.

Bill Curtis was the director inside the center every weekday and with some networking, I discovered he started allowing skateboarding there around 2008 when local skateboarders Leandro Santos and Davon Rodrigues saw a kid with a skateboard outside and asked if they could skate in there. Within a year it became full of dozens of skaters almost every day for years to come. The skaters themselves being resourceful would bring in their own fun boxes, and flat bar rails to use as obstacles. They would also use old tables or other people's “garbage” scraps of wood as ramps and manual pads. Today there are hours and hours of footage of skate edits that were posted to YouTube and other social media during that time period. In an effort to showcase the strong history of the skate community I will be reposting these videos every day on Future Media Skateboarding's social media pages to promote this petition and the need there really is to keep skateboarding in the center. 

I truly believe Bill Curtis didn't necessarily understand this thing we love, this thing being skateboarding and its culture, but he knew its impact was far greater than the risk involved. I know Bill Curtis supported skateboarding. Larry Moore Mourning at Bill's retirement became executive director and also supported and still supports skateboarding. The removal of the program was not his fault. In fact, he just helped design and order T-shirts with the young skaters that still frequent regularly there that read “skate for change”

Now the reality of the center in today's time is that since the reopening post-pandemic, the center has painted all its walls white, covering the beautiful murals/tags that were once there, and now has a lot of rules and restrictions in place for certain activities. They rent the place out to track clubs, soccer groups, churches, etc. to help to fund I assume, so we as skaters couldn’t be in there some nights. Skateboarders could also only be on the right side of the gym outside of the white line. Some really silly things that were never in effect when Bill was there, yet we come back because there is nowhere else to go. Especially in the wintertime.  Now as one generation ages through and the next comes in we try to help out as much as we can. My friend Vini Hollanda and I built a new grind box last 2021 winter with some leftover granite countertop and plywood and donated it to the center. I will also be posting edits and clips from last winter on Future Media Skateboarding's social media so make sure to follow!

I started skateboarding at the Harambe Center in 2010, I continued doing so until just a few months ago as it was stripped away due to what I assume is risk management. Why was the privilege taken away you ask? Unfortunately, a young teenager broke his foot skateboarding. A risk every participant knows is there but surprisingly rarely happens. Skateboarders, especially children, have a great understanding of risk assessment. We learn to fall so that we don’t get hurt. It’s funny when I asked Larry if he supported skateboarding last week as I was planning this, he said to me that not only has he supported us for years as he sees us continuously fall and get back up knowing the regular person could learn from that, but if the parents are calling him saying they want their kids skateboarding in there who is he to say he doesn’t support it. No parents of Harambe youth participants have contacted or threatened them in regard to lawsuits or any risk. With a waiver signed stating the participant release liability and is fully aware of risk there should be no reason not to skateboard inside the center.

The skateboarding community around the whole world that has been fostered full of culture and life lessons in its participation has been in existence for only 60 to 70 years. But only with the recent 2021 Olympic Debut was it proven to the individual who knows nothing about skateboarding or its impact, that it really is here to stay. Skateboarding isn't going anywhere. Skateboarding is actually good for you too, who figured?

But as I write this knowing I'm a total skate nerd, I write this with the hopes to share my reality and my history of my participation in my local community and the detrimental left turn I just saw be initiated. Danbury skateboarding has a history. Danbury skateboarding is here. Danbury skateboarding is forever. Once again my name is Pedro, and I am a skateboarding advocate. I have done research on how successful relationships have been built across the United States between skate communities and folks in charge to get win-win scenarios with successful skateparks. And with that, I realize the reality that a lot of city governments, municipalities, and even non-profits face. They need to know the bottom line, how much money will all this cost? 

Well, at this point I am not asking for any money at all. I am asking for the first step to be taken by those in positions of authority in showing support for skateboarding. This toy, this sport, this lifestyle, past time, transportation tool, fitness activity, community building activity, and so many more descriptions have proven to be beneficial to participants. Not just physically but mentally. Last time I’ll say to Follow Future Media SB where I will also share updated market research on skateboarding from the most qualified.

The time will soon come when I ask for a steering committee to be formed in the City of Danbury to talk about skatepark development and another petition will come for that. But for now; The Bill S. Curtis Harambe Youth Center needs to foster one more winter of skateboarding. Foster is defined as encouraging and promoting the development of something typically regarded as good.

The need and the demand to have skateboarding inside the center is here. With the help of YOU signing this petition, it shows your support when asking for change. I am going to start contacting directors, board members, and business owners from different companies, nonprofits and institutions to see if they will also show support. Thank you again for reading this, God bless.