The East Coast Round Wall Foundation began as a group of skateboarders who liked to build ramps and travel up and down the coast to skate. By 2005, the group pretty much did the same thing, but officially had an incorporated non-profit tax identification number.
The difference now is ECRW (pronounced E-crew) is introducing 14- and 15-year-olds to the sport of skateboarding, teaching them how to build skate ramps and bowls out of recycled materials and providing role models, among other things.
This summer’s program has inspired a group of teens who live near Northeast’s Langdon Park to be filmmakers.
“We are teaching the kids in the local community of the Green Skate Lab how to capture and edit video footage to create their own skate videos,” said Terri Nostrand, 34, the organization’s president.
The District’s Langdon Park is home to ECRW’s 2005 summer project — the Green Skate Lab, made of used tires and recycled fill material, built by ECRW, fellow skaters and neighborhood kids and funded by grants.
ECRW volunteers engage teens hanging out in the park by offering up skateboards to try out the ramp and explaining the video program. If anyone shows interest in either activity, the necessary equipment ishanded over, said Nostrand, a Montgomery County science teacher. ECRW has given out more than 50 boards since the lab was built.
“It has a real ripple effect with the kids,” she said. “We get some who are involved and interested. That interest cascades into pride and that pride leaks out all over the place.”
A growing number of ECRW teens act as stewards of the park, making sure the area is clean and taking care of any other maintenance with adults.
The organization is interested in raising funds and working with D.C. Parks and Recreation to build a learning center out of an abandoned recreation center in Langdon Park, Nostrand said. There are also several recycling projects in the works, she said.
ECRW recently formed a committee to explore ideas on restoring the Scott D. Eagle Park, a skate park in Woodbridge, said Jaime Stapula, an original ECRW skater and current foundation member.
The Prince William County Park Authority encourages organizations to work with them to help raise funds and build up its park system, said Rebecca Morgan, a parks spokeswoman.
For more information
» Green Skate Lab
Langdon Park Recreation Center
2901 20th St., NE, Washington, D.C.
» www.greenskatelab.org
