Lunchtime skateboard program a hit with students at Liverpool school

Dr. John C. Wickwire Academy in Liverpool has been turning its gym into a skate park at lunchtime, and the students are loving it.

Known as Project Skateboard, the program has been in place for four years and behaviour-support teacher Isaac Rafuse says the turnout has been "amazing."

The school provides students with the gear and even offers a hand-painted ramp in the gym to do tricks on.

Rafuse says the gym is used for skateboarding every morning, at lunchtime and during many physical education classes.

When Katy Parsons from CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia visited the school recently, Keith Brown was eager to show off a new move he had been practising.

"This is a really hard move," says Brown, who is in Grade 4. "I don't know what it's called. I just do a drift on my knees on the board and I just drift around the corner."

The program is partly funded by the Uplift Partnership, which says it provides support and learning for school-aged children and youth.

Rafuse also says that some companies have provided discounts on equipment.

Skateboards cost between $300 and $350, he says, and other gear like knee pads, helmets, elbow guards and wrist guards total about $150 per student.

Rafuse says the program is teaching the children important social skills.

"Skateboarding is a a great platform for kids to practise being polite to each other," he says.

"They will bump into each other, people will make mistakes ... you got to help them up. You got to apologize."

Rafuse says he has seen students in the program progress in many ways.

Grade 5 student Ardennes Ozturk, who moved to Liverpool from Montreal in 2022, says it was exciting to learn that the school offered skateboarding.

"Basically we skateboard and sometimes we also play tag with the skateboards," Ozturk says.

"We just play and sometimes some kids like to run into each other just for fun."

Jayden Whynot, who is also in Grade 5, echoed Ozturk's enthusiasm.

"My favourite thing about skateboarding is that you you learn and then get better every couple seconds and then you go up the ramp and you get really better," Whynot says.

Rafuse says other schools in the area have started similar programs in the last two years.

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