More Updates

Hey Everyone,

Hope you all had fun at the Halloween Dance. Here are a couple of updates for ya:

• I've submitted a grant application to All Stars Helping Kids, a non-profit that supports programs that enhance the health and fitness and life skills of children. If we get it, that would be AWESOME! But we also need to think of other ways of raising ca$h-money
• The Donations page is up and running. If you have any friends/family members that'd be interested in donating, LET THEM KNOW!
• I got new shoes. They're etnies, and they're pretty sweet.
• My friend Dan Allende of the futurefarmers artist collective will be coming in to help us out with our boards on Wednesday. He knows a lot about arts and will be able to help you work out any problems you're having with your design. GET PUMPED and check out his site: www.danallende.com and the futurefarmers site: www.futurefarmers.com for more info

Next week we'll finish painting the table and hopefully get done priming our boards.

That's all for now.

Skate the Gate (and Happy Halloween)

Mr. Diptesh

Updates

What’s going on party people.

Great news: WE GOT THE BOARDS!

Yes, all of your boards are hidden in a top-secret location in the school and will be released to you shortly.

Next week those that are finished painting their graphics on the table can start priming their boards.

I’ve uploaded your pictures on to the Shredders and Artist section and put up your board designs on the Artwork section.

Remember to be in the playground before 4:15 so I can sign you guys out and we can get straight to it.

If you're on facebook - and I know most of you kids these days are - be sure to Like the new Shred Francisco page and get your friends to Like it too. I'l be throwing up some pics/designs/links as we go along.

Finally, here’s a sweet clip form the Girl video Yeah Right! Enjoy and see you next week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyejDe1V4Ls

Skate the Gate,

Mr. Diptesh

FIRST MEETING

Thanks to everyone that made it to the first meeting!

To those of you that didn't come: SHAME!

Just kidding. Make sure that you tell all your parents when the club is though...

4:15 to 5:15 ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS

During the first meeting we drew up a few board designs on templates to get an idea of what type of graphics we'd want. Check em out in the Artwork section!

Next week we'll keep working on the designs and hopefully get painting soon.

Also, check out the Shredder & Artists section. Here you can see the profiles of all the members.

Until next week,

Mr. Diptesh

Skate the Gate

What We're All About

It is my pleasure to announce that this year Mission Dolores will be starting its own Skateboard Club– Shred Francisco.

Shred Francisco will be a predominantly student-run project for 5^th through 8^th graders aimed at integrating arts and sports in to community development.

The first component of the project will consist of a board-painting workshop. Students will pay an initial fee for their blank skateboard deck ($15). They will then spend about a month first planning their design and then painting their skateboard. We also aim to have local artists participate in the workshops to give the kids inspiration and teach them fundamentals of painting.

With their self-designed skateboard deck, the children can then choose either to keep their deck for themselves, or sell the deck through the school and local skate shops. With the proceeds from their sales, the kids can use the money to sustain the club and buy other necessities i.e. pads, helmets, other skateboarding accessories.

We then hope to begin the actual skateboarding lessons after winter break. This will include weekly tutorials on skateboarding fundamentals in the school playground. For these the children will be supervised, and knee and elbow pads along with helmets will be required.

Shred Francisco aims to dispel the negative stereotypes that are often associated with skateboarders. Through the process children will not only learn how to paint and how to skateboard, but how their passions can be transformed in to concrete works – both artistic and, hopefully, profitable.