LAWRENCE — A group of skaters in Lawrence are working to clean up their favorite skate park.
“I skate and ride parks all day,” shared Indy Viral Skate Star Casper Jones. “I love this park, and love to enjoy it.”
Jones noticed a couple of months ago his favorite park was riddled with trash and hateful graffiti.
“The vandalism and everything else has just gotten to the point where maintenance has fallen off,” Jones shared.
“There wasn't really much pride in the park. Seeing the slur getting tagged here was kind of the last straw.”
Instead of posting kick flips, Jones began posting videos of him cleaning up the park.
It gained the attention of local artists Robert Bentley.
WATCH | Local artist helps other emerging artists
“I’m always looking for a legal spot to go paint,” Bentley explained. “I said, ‘if you ever have something like this and you need it painted over, hit me up and I can.”
The City of Lawrence agreed to allow the skaters help clean the park up.
“It’s artwork that's approved,” Jones explained. “It’ll stay there forever. It's a memory of a person, and it could be something beautiful.”
It’s bringing artists and skaters together to make their community better.
Jones hopes it helps ensure a future of skating for the next generation.
“(If we do a) little bit of work for them to make sure they continue to build more stuff for us, maintain it, we can help make sure this doesn't end up a pickleball court or something one day,”
