History / Timeline
Spring/Summer 2007: The MSA has big plans for the spring/summer 2007 including completion of the Brick Banks, OUR grand opening celebration, the 1st annual Missoula Bowl Jam, and a summer full of BBQ's and traveling demos (fingers crossed!).
Fall 2006: Several weeks of good weather remained after the fantastic success of the Grand Opening with Tony Hawk. The park saw lots of traffic during the months of October and November and we were to get a bulk of the rough landscaping work completed as well. All that remains to be built at this point is the Brick Bank section at the south end of the (now titled) MOBASH skatepark.
Spring/Summer 2006: Grindline arrived in March 2006 for what would be a 6-month construction schedule. By early April the kidney bowl was in place and work began on the 'Big Bowl'. Summer construction progressed and the MSA was able to raise enough money to build the entire park, including the street course, when previously it seemed that the project would need to be split into 2 phases. A sprint to the finish was required in order to prepare for a surprise visit by Tony Hawk and company on September 24th, 2006.
Winter 2005/06: After a busy summer (and fall) full of fundraising and promotional events, we sent out requests for bids to our short list of qualified contractors. Unfortunately, with all of the recent world events, and some other logistical details, the bids came back WAY too expensive. We had to toss 'em and rethink how we could go about this differently. There we were with over $200K in the bank and still no plan for getting this sucker built. Turns out that the solution was to just turn the project ownership over from the City of Missoula, to the Missoula Skatepark Association. Then, we could split the whole project up into more manageable pieces. Once that was done, the MSA was able to request bids for just Phase 1, making it easier for our contractors to "trim the fat" and bring down their bid prices....way down. Bids went out again in February 2006 and came back exactly where we'd hoped...well within our budget. Game on.....ground breaks in March 06, if not sooner.
October 2005: We ended October with just over 900 Jeep ticket sales. We're going to have a party once we sell the 1000th ticket...then we'll be halfway to the goal. Our Art Show and Auction was a huge success with great turnouts on both nights. In total we raised over $7100 and we look forward to doing it again next year. Donations continue to come in and we've got some great events planned for November, like our annual Snowboard Video premier party and the inaugural MSA Battle of the Bands Fundraiser.
August / September 2005: The summer wrapped up for the MSA with some great events including the Crosby, Stills, & Nash show.....and Willie Nelson. All totaled, just under $30,000 was raised at the Big Sky Brewing Summer Concert Series concerts and everyone got to see some great music in the process. After some great national exposure in 4x4 magazines, the Jeep Raffle ticket sales increased dramatically and through these 2 months over 700 tickets have sold. We're looking forward to our upcoming art show and auction in October.
July 2005: The 'driest-July-in-years' was pretty good to the Missoula Skatepark Association. The Downtown ToNight events in Caras park along with our 50 Cent show...were all great successes. We sold a bunch of t-shirts this month and continue to educate everyone on the project status, location, and timeline. Our 'On-Deck' blank skate decks were all distributed to over 50 artists who will be contributing work in our Fall Art show (October 7th) at Gallery Blue. We also received at $5000 grant from First Interstate Bank.....awesome. Watch for big news in August & September....think GROUNDBREAKING!
June 2005: Summer 2005 kicked off with our weekly MSA appearance at the Downtown ToNight event in Caras Park where we display our Jeep to be raffled off along with all of our gear and skatepark materials, signs, literature, etc. Jeep Raffle sales picked up the pace this month along with a number of engraved brick sales. On the weekend of June 24th & 25th, the TotalFest event was a big success, raising over $3000 towards the park, along with our first Big Sky Brewing show on June 29th which brought in almost $7000. If you are good at math, that's $10,000 in less than a week!
May 2005: The MSA attended lots of planning and fundraising meetings this month. We're continuing to pull everything together for the Big Sky Brewing Summer Concert Series and hope that we'll have lots of returnees from the concerts last year. This month we sold our first fundraising brick and started planning for a fall 2005 skateboard art show...more info coming soon on that front. We also received our check from the Tony Hawk Foundation.....for $15K!
April 2005: The 2nd Public Design meeting went off with overwhelming support for the final design that Grindline and Abbotswood came up with. If someone handed us $250,000 right now we'd be breakin' ground...break out yo' wallets! Also, fundraising shifts into overdrive and our new website launched.
March 2005: MRA donated another $75,000 to the skatepark project, The University of Montana and University Center Events offered to host a benefit concert for MSA and the MSA submitted our Tony Hawk Grant Application.
February 2005: Big Sky Brewing selected the MSA as the sole beneficiary of the Summer 2005 concert series and the Official MSA Board of Directors was appointed.
January 2005: WGM Group in Missoula donated their engineering services to do the survey work for the Missoula Skatepark project.
Winter, 2004/2005: PUBLIC DESIGN MEETING #1: Thanks to everyone who came out to the Public Skatepark Meeting on Wednesday, January 12th. The turnout was great, with skaters from all ages and walks of life contributing their ideas for the Missoula Skatepark.
Fall, 2004: Our summer concert series at Big Sky Brewing ended with just two concerts, but brought in about $14,000 towards the park. A special thanks goes out to Big Sky Brewing & all of the volunteers who made these shows possible. The MSA also received a $5000 donation from The Appleseed Foundation this summer. Special thanks to Susan O'Connor.
SNOWBOARD VIDEO PREMIER - In October, the annual Snowboard video premier sponsored by Edge Of The World was another huge success, bringing in another $900 towards the project. See the Snowboarder Magazine article on our annual fundraiser.
Summer, 2004: BIG SKY BREWING CONCERT SERIES - The first show in the new Big Sky Brewing Amphitheater was held on July 6th with Big Head Todd & John Fogerty performing. Over 30 volunteers from the Missoula Skatepark and Brennan's Wave were on hand to help sell beverages and park cars. Each organization made over $3500 and the next concert is scheduled for July 30th with BB King performing. Please contact us if you'd like to help out.
501C3 - These numbers and letters may not mean much to many of you, but to us they are priceless. This is the tax status that one must have so that donors will receive full tax exemption for any monies that are donated to our cause. It took the better part of this spring to get our application together, but we did it....and anyone can now donate to us and receive retroactive tax exemption once our application is fully accepted.
DESIGN FIRM CHOSEN - The RFQ's went out in May and the Missoula Skatepark Association (MSA) as well as Missoula Parks & Recreation and the City of Missoula agreed on selecting Grindline to be the design/build firm for our park. This is huge...it means that we'll finally be conducting design meetings and we'll see actual drawings based on our location, etc. It also means that we seriously need to ramp up our fundraising to be able to break ground by next Spring (2005).
Spring, 2004: Video Premiere Friday, May 7th - Crystal Theater - all proceeds go to support the Missoula Skatepark. Early show starts @ 6:00 p.m. Late show starts @ 8:00 p.m. Tix $6 per show & are available at Edge of the World (formerly board of missoula) 618 S. Higgins Ave. Bonus raffles for complete skate & longboard.
Big Sky Brewing and Clear Channel Communications held a fundraising/awareness day on April 22nd to help get the word out on the Missoula Skatepark and Brennan's Wave. Thanks to everyone who made an appearance, we sold a number of shirts, stickers, & raffle tickets....plus the word got out on the radio, thanks to 96.3 THE BLAZE.
February 2004: MSA board members met and made Missoula Skatepark T-Shirts that are available in all sizes for $10 a piece at Board of Missoula and right here at missoulaskatepark.org.
Winter, 2003/2004: Big Sky Brewing comes through HUGE! The Missoula Skatepark and Brennan's Wave (kayak park) were picked to be the only beneficiaries of a concert series that will be held in 2004. Stay tuned for more info as it is available. Also during this month, progress was made on the RFQ (Request For Qualifications) that will be sent out to various skatepark construction/design companies. We must follow a very detailed procedure to ensure that the best company is picked in a fair manner.... unfortunately this just takes a lot of time.
Fall 2003 - MSA fundraising committee members began the aluminum can drive and the skate ramp at Board of Missoula has raked in over $1000 since it was built 10 months ago. The Missoula Skatepark Association (MSA) formalized a fundraising committee and met several times to brainstorm for ideas. A video premier was a big hit and raised over $1000. The Missoula City Council unanimously approved the idea of a skatepark in Missoula, then two days later, the Missoula Redevelopment Association granted the Missoula Skatepark Association $100,000 in matching funds. This means that with the $50,000 donation we've received from Pearl Jam that we're off and running.