Venice Beach Skatepark
Whenever I'm in LA I head over to the Venice Beach Skatepark. There is always a great group of skaters there and I can spend hours watching them skate, wishing I was as good as I was back in the day.
When you go there, you'll notice something a bit different from a lot of other skateparks and the rest of Venice Beach; there is no grafitti and the place is immaculate. This is primarily because of one man: Jesse Martinez (I picked up one of his SMA decks on my last visit). Jesse spends most of his days waking up before the sun in order to clean the park and remove any new graffiti before anyone else arrives. Jesse has been doing this on his own time with no pay for the last five years. He's also using his own money and money donated by locals. Whatever minimal support from the city of Los Angeles he did receive was stopped about six months ago due to budget cuts. And if that wasn't enough, the truck used to clean and maintain the park was stolen a few weeks ago along with the power washer used to remove graffiti. Check out this article for the whole story.
I know it may not be the most glamorous or heartwarming cause, but if you love skateboarding or just want to help keep the skatepark clean and help a guy who's put a lot of his own personal time and money into keeping it clean, head over to this GoFundMe page and donate if you can.
