The Middlebury Campus: Community members, students hope to bring skatepark to Middlebury

By Ben Wagner

September 29, 2022 | 6:00am EDT

It can be hard to find a place to skateboard in Vermont —  and even harder to find a safe place to experiment with new skills. Currently, most local skateboarders make the trek to permanent skateparks in Burlington, Vt. for a space to hone their craft. 

There is no purpose-built skatepark in Addison County. But the Middlebury Skatepark Project wants to change that.

“We have been meeting monthly [since May] as a group at the Ilsley Library community room,” Ethan Murphy, co-leader of the skatepark project, wrote in an email to The Campus. “We have had a regular presence at the Midd Summer Market raising awareness, selling stickers, raffling skate decks and most recently selling our very popular Middlebury Skatepark Project logo t-shirts designed by local artist Mike Kin.”

Murphy added that the group has 160 members, including Middlebury College students, and has raised $1000.

The skate park would be a multi-use space, designed to widely benefit the Middlebury community.