Join the Shipyard team on Friday, October 13 for our Annual Pumpkin Regatta! Race across the basin in our famous "pumpkins", to raise money for this year’s selected charity, Friends of Newport Skatepark. Cost is $25/person and each team should have 4-5 members. If you want to come and enjoy food & beverage, cost is $25/person for a bracelet.
There will be several raffle items and an award given to the team with the FASTEST time and the BEST COSTUMES! Raffle drawing will take place around 6pm, you do not need to be present to win.
Please submit team entries to the Newport Shipyard Dock Office or sign up below by 1pm on Friday, October 13. Food from Wally’s Wieners is sponsored by Newport Rigging Group and Safe Harbor Newport Shipyard. Beverages sponsored by RC Marine Electric.
Friends of Newport Skatepark (FONS) is a 501(c)(3) Public Charity organized for the purpose of advocating, designing, and fundraising for Newport’s new skatepark.
FONS serves two (2) primary functions:
1. To be the centralized voice of Newport's skateboard community to city officials to ensure a modern, world class skatepark is designed and built; and
2. To privately fundraise $1,000,000 for the construction of the skatepark.
Background:
To fully understand the present posture of the city’s efforts to build a skatepark, the background leading up to now is important.
The campaign to bring a modern skatepark to the city dates back decades, but the latest efforts began in earnest in 2016, when Tim Boucher, then a senior at Rogers High School, brought attention to the decaying, dangerous, skatepark located at Easton’s Beach.
The issues with the Easton’s Beach Skatepark were three fold: one, it was poorly designed; two, it was exposed to the harsh waterfront elements of wind and sand; and three, and probably most unfortunate, it was not accessible by Newport kids – located miles away from any Newport neighborhoods.
By February 2017, for good reason, the city had demolished the old park.
Simultaneously, the Newport Open Space Partnership published its Newport Tree, Park and Open Space Master Plan (the “Master Plan”). Relocating the now demolished skatepark was identified as an implementation priority and an identified need.
On October 26, 2022, the city council by unanimous vote designated a 20,000 square foot portion of the new recreation area for the purposes of a skatepark. Following the case for support, see attached Schematic Map showing the area approved for a skatepark.
This is why it’s so special:
1. Location. The new park is in walking distance of residential neighborhoods. Once built, literally hundreds of Newport, and Middletown, youth will be able to walk out their fronts doors and safely walk to a full size basketball court and skatepark;
2. No Displacement of Existing Uses. The historic use of the Abbruzzi Athletic Complex remains. While the process took over two years, this park landed in the right spot;
3. First modern skatepark in Rhode Island. With the Interlocal Trust rules updated, the city and FONS can build a modern skatepark, in line with what is bing built all over the country, that challenges all levels, allowing kids to progress and grow a love for an active, outdoor sport;
4. Skateboarding is inclusive. For many kids, this skatepark will become a home away from home. With no fees, coaches or expensive equipment, the barriers to entry are not like other sports. All it takes is a board and a passion
2023 PUMPKIN REGATTA SIGN-UP
PUMPKIN REGATTA SPONSORS 2023
Raffle/Silent Auction Sponsors 2023
