WATERVILLE — As Thomas College student Dave Dutil heads into his senior year, he hopes to wrap up a two-year fundraising effort to improve a skate park in the city’s South End.
Dutil, of Waterville, will be running a haunted trail this Halloween to raise money to improve the Green Street Park. The opening night for the Trail of Frightmares will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 2 Michael Lane in Waterville. The haunted trail will charge $3 for adults and $2 for kids with proceeds going toward the skate park renovations. Dutil’s goal is to raise $70,000.
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The Trail of Frightmares, benefiting the Skate Park Association, opens Oct. 28.
When: 7-10 p.m. Oct. 28-30, 7-11 p.m. Oct. 31
Where: 2 Michael Lane, Waterville
Admission: $3 for 18 years and older, $2 for 17 and under
“If I’m going to live somewhere, I don’t want to just squat there. I want to do what I can to enjoy the area and help out,” he said.
Dutil said roller blading has always been his hobby, and he sometimes travels out of state to visit skate parks.
Dutil said he started his fundraising efforts in October 2012 to improve the small Green Street skate park, where he skated on roller blades when growing up.
Parks & Recreation Director Matt Skehan said he’s been in contact with Dutil about the project for years.
“He’s a local kid with a lot of passion. He’s spent a lot of time there growing up, and it has fallen into disrepair,” Skehan said. “We’ll help out in kind or anyway we can, but we’re just not able to afford to put new equipment down there.”
Dutil said people traditionally associate popular team sports like football and basketball as wholesome childhood activities, but said sports like skateboarding and rollerblading have that same kind of meaning to enthusiasts like himself.
“I’d like to prove that this type of sport can also have that same effect,” he said.
His goal is to create increased skateboarding challenges in the park, like a quarter pipe and handrail in the small park, which now has a ramp, some rails and other low level obstacles.
Skehan said new recreation projects will have to come through private efforts, citing the Quarry Road Recreation Area as an example. The city is a strong supporter of the recreation area, said Skehan, but it is run by a private board of volunteers who do their own fundraising.
Skehan said the park was built by a private fundraising effort during the tenure of a past recreation director.
“Unfortunately, we’re not able to fund any of the improvements. We make sure that it’s safe and clean, and my crew keeps it up the best they can,” Skehan said.
Fundraising so far has been sporadic. Dutil said he has raised $500 so far, and a Go Fund Me site shows $25 donated toward a $52,000 goal.
As he continues his senior year of college, Dutil said it’s too early to know if he’ll stay in the area or look elsewhere for a job after school, but he said the progress of his fundraising effort will be a factor in the decision.
“If the fundraising is starting to take off, yeah, I’d love to see it through,” he said.
Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252
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