“Skateboarding is used as a tool to give socioeconomically disadvantaged children the opportunity to achieve their goals and rise above poverty.” – Skateboards For Hope
July 13, 2023
Surrounded by artwork and 45 brightly painted skateboards with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, it was an epically positive morning at the newly opened Buenas Cafe and Cowork space in Bocas Town.
Creativity, athletics, generosity, recycling; a collaborative effort in the name of Bocas del Toro’s community and its future athletes. These were the feelings in the air as we stopped by for a chat at a skateboard art exhibition on the morning of July 13, 2023, featuring 200 pounds of freshly donated skateboard decks, trucks and wheels; the decks all decorated with custom paint designs from 6th grade art students in Montreal, Canada.
Where did all these skateboards come from? A collaborative effort between Skateboards For Hope volunteer Ian McMurray and local ambassador, Alex Cisneros.
Ian McMurray first visited Bocas in 2019. Disciplined in the martial art Jiu-Jitsu, McMurray was right at home training at Bocas Fight Gym during his 10-day visit. This is where he met local sensei and owner-operator, Alex Cisernos. The two later kept in touch on social media.
In his hometown of Montreal, Canada, in 2022, McMurray started volunteering for the NGO Skateboards For Hope. He noticed Cisneros posting skateboard content on-line and proposed the idea of Bocas del Toro being benefited by Skateboards For Hope, to which he accepted with great enthusiasm.
McMurray got to work organizing the skateboard donations and contacting airlines necessary to make his journey from Montreal to Panama City to Bocas. He says it was hard to get an answer from either airline; six months of back and forth and unanswered emails, but when he did, the answer was positive. He was able to arrange discounts on luggage and packed up four 50 pound duffle bags with 45 skateboard decks and enough trucks and wheels to assemble at least 20 skateboards.
The skateboards were all fashioned with newly painted designs inspired by the creative young minds of 6th grade art students from the school in which Mr. McMurray works in Montreal.
Check out the full interview on The Bocas Breeze YouTube channel.
About Skateboards For Hope
Skateboards for Hope is a non-profit organization founded by Betty Esperanza. It all started when she was on a trip in Cuba and she gifted her skateboard to a young boy. She returned years later and that boy, Yojany Perez, had become the top skateboarder in the country, sparking an interest for the sport in other young Cubans.
Esperanza and her colleagues have since been organizing mass donations of used skateboards to the developing world ever since, distributing thousands of decks, trucks, wheels and associated gear to keep inspiring the next generation of athletes. Along with the original Cuba connection, there are now also Skateboard for Hope outfits in India, Brazil, Uganda and its homebase in Montreal, Canada, from where most of the donations come.
Add Panama to that list now that Bocas del Toro has received its first batch of Skateboards For Hope and it couldn’t be better timing with the recent building of a community skate park. Although our local skate community asserts some key interventions need to be made before the park is ideal – story for another day- the skate park can still be used in its current state for elementary skate instruction with local kids.
Alex Cisernos will serve as Panama’s ambassador for the Skateboard For Hope program, a role readers of The Bocas Breeze know is well suited for him. Alex is already well known and respected for his dedication to instructing children in the discipline of martial arts at the Bocas Fight Gym.
Cisernos gave us a preview of exciting things to come, mentioning that he and other local skater colleagues are organizing a skate club, where kids participate in weekly workshops. The recently donated skateboards will be loaned to the children for this purpose. The group has a vision of the project advancing under a similar model as the well-established Bocas Surf Club. This is where the children are rewarded with more privileges to the equipment based on their continued participation; eventually being able to borrow boards individually outside of the weekly group sessions and possibly one day earning their own skateboard through the program, depending on how the donations of boards develop and overall availability.
How can the readers of The Bocas Breeze help?
Let’s add to the community quiver of skateboards for the kids! If you are passing through Bocas del Toro and have equipment to donate, get in touch with Alex Cisneros. All donations of skate equipment are warmly accepted and will be put to good use with this new skate club.
Stay tuned for more information on the development of this skate club, in which the first classes are set to start soon.
Thank you Ian McMurray and the lovely people of Skateboards For Hope for your wonderful contribution to the community. We look forward to seeing this partnership flourish.
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