Pinch of Salt: ASK Foundation, Donelon Skatepark Legacy continues to grow in Long Beach

I was working at my home office earlier this week and looked up to see a skateboard deck, signed with a bunch of names. Tony Hawk was one, but the names that mattered were the kids.

A guy named Mike Donelon – and his crew of skaters – gave me that deck a couple decades ago. It was symbolic of the work we had done together to create skateparks in Long Beach.

Actually, I had done very little work – a few stories here and there, some advocacy while I was serving on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission. Donelon carried the load, primarily by convincing a group of young skateboarders to advocate for themselves. It was something to see.

The rebuild of the Silverado Park Skatepark, done completely with private funds (okay, there was one $5,000 grant from the Port of Long Beach, but no city money at all), is what has prompted this little nostalgia trip. Donelon and his youth army called the ASK Foundation (Action Sports Kids Foundation) decided the street/plaza park needed a rebuild, designed it and did all the fundraising.

It should be noted that they had created the first Silverado Park park from discarded equipment and obstacles from other parks. The city was a cheerleader, but not much more. So let me take you back. Nearly 30 years back.

Donelon was on the City Council, representing the Seventh District. He was a bit of an anomaly – not a politician type. He had squeaked into the seat in 1994 by just a few votes and made representing the common guy a big deal. One of the issues of the day was those hooligan teenagers skateboarding on public property, taking over steps, bus benches, sidewalks – pretty much anything where they could try stunts. It was portrayed as a juvenile delinquent thing, and upstanding citizens wanted it stopped. (I did mention it was 30 years ago, didn’t I?)

Donelon had a different opinion. He noted that kids concentrating on skateboarding typically weren’t joining criminal gangs, or getting in trouble for more than skateboarding. So he organized a community meeting (council people love community meetings), only he invited the skaters to show up. Using himself as an example, he showed the youngsters how they could make a difference by advocating for themselves.

The ASK Foundation got a start by lobbying for a skatepark at El Dorado Park. It wasn’t a slam-dunk, and it took what seemed like forever for a youngster – four years from the proposal in 1996 to the opening in 2000. Donelon wasn’t on the council any more, but the ASK Foundation had become an established force, and had earned a celebrity endorsement from Tony Hawk. There were a few hiccups; bad actors that were pretty much chased away by the majority of skateboarders protecting their park, arguments over whether BMX bikes or rollerbladers could use the bowls and ramps, etc.

Donelon’s concept of giving kids something positive to do in order to stamp out the negative proved true. I had been appointed to the Parks and Recreation Commission when they came forward with requests for more skateparks, beginning with the huge bowl at Houghton Park. That was a fun project. Today, there are 10 official skateparks in Long Beach, ranging from small surface setups to that big set of bowls at Houghton Park. The ASK Foundation, with support from the city’s Parks, Recreation and Marine Department, hosts events at many of those parks, often attracting 100 people and more.

Donelon and his kids were involved in the push to add skateboarding to the Olympics, and were part of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 2022. That first batch of youth advocates are now adults helping to support the program and watching kids of their own do those stunts. It’s taken a couple of years to come up with the money to put new equipment at Silverado. Hawk’s nonprofit ponied up $15,000, and John Morris’s Big Bang on the Bay event added $10,000. The bulk of the budget came from the crypto company Nouns (it was their float in the Rose Parade), and the ASK Foundation squeezed the last $10,000 out of their own budget.

When the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the rebuilt Silverado Park skatepark takes place in late February, Donelon will be there smiling like the proud grandfather he is. This is what he had to say this week: “ASK is the oldest grassroots skateboarding nonprofit in the USA. The journey continues making a difference in the lives of children through skateboarding.”

That’s a pretty good legacy, don’t you think?

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