Grijalva Park’s skateboarding facility has been dedicated to Christina-Taylor Green, the youngest victim of the 2011 Tucson shooting.
The dedication was made official in a small neighborhood unveiling on Saturday morning. The Midvale Park Neighborhood Association, along with others who were involved with the project, discussed the process of renovating the park and the decision to build a skateboarding facility after a group of kids attended one of the association’s meetings two years ago and asked that one be built.
Midvale Park Neighborhood Association President Joe Miller said that prior to installing the ramps, rails and boxes, an empty concrete pad occupied the corner of the park, and that skateboarders were constructing makeshift ramps out of large rocks and boards.
“The kids need a place to play, and if they’re not there, they’re off smoking dope, or they’re finding other ways to maintain their time,” Miller added.
Funding the facility came as a challenge for the association despite getting four of its six skateboarding elements from storage, which had been left over from another project by the parks and recreation department. The two extra pieces for the park cost about $7,500, Miller said, adding that it was not a feasible expense at the time with the already-high cost of renovating Midvale Park in its entirety.
The association struggled to find additional funding, until days after the Tucson shooting when an anonymous donor, a Midvale Park resident, put up the money to complete the project. The Midvale Park Homeowner’s Association matched the donation with another $7,500, and another $50,000 came from the Pascua Yaqui tribe, which will be used in another phase of park renovations.
Midvale Park Neighborhood Association board members agreed that Green’s life was a fitting inspiration to continue to secure funding for the project, and to maintain the parks in the future.
“Sometimes you don’t want to be in a park picking up trash,” Miller added. “But then you think, ‘Wait a second, there’s another 9-year-old who’s going to be in this park later on,’ and how can that make a difference?”
