Hamilton skate park gets $60,000 pledge from Pearl Jam’s Ament
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/hamilton-skate-park-gets-pledge-from-pearl-jam-s-ament/article_2736b4ec-88e8-5c65-a859-c8f9887f2efd.html
HAMILTON – Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament is at it again.
The band's bassist has pledged $60,000 to Hamilton to help jump-start efforts to build a skateboard park. This is the 10th park the longtime skateboarder has helped finance in Montana in the last 10 years.
Last year, it was Stevensville’s turn.
After Ament’s donation and an equally generous offer from Bill Watkins of Discover Care Center, the community raised the money needed to make that dream come true.
Recently, Ament offered the same amount to the Circle 13 organization that has been working for years to bring a skateboard park to Hamilton.
The Circle 13 group jumped over its first major hurdle when it acquired about a half-acre on the southeastern edge of the county fairgrounds in Hamilton.
Not long after that, Watkins stepped forward to offer a $50,000 matching grant to kick off the fundraising effort. And then came Ament’s pledge.
Circle 13 president Bryan Dufresne said they have about $120,000 of the estimated $500,000 that it will cost to build the park, which will include a restroom, lightning, landscaping and a paved parking area.
In a 2015 interview with Vice, Ament said he has been an avid boarder since 1975 but fell away from the sport for a few years. When he took it back up while on tour in Australia, he was inspired to help share the experience back home.
His first donation was to help build a park in Seattle, where he was living at the time.
"After that I went to city council meetings for about five years to try and get something built in Missoula,'' he said in the Vice interview. "That one was a brutal process because it was such a big city. But then I helped get the St. Ignatius Park built and that was super-easy because it was a small town.
"That's when the focus became on these rural towns and these isolated areas, whether they're reservations or not – I don't really see color when it comes to that. I think kids who are in isolated places have a tough hill to climb,'' Ament, who grew up in Big Sandy, told Vice.
According to Pearl Jam's website, Ament has helped build skateboard parks in the Montana communities of Missoula, St. Ignatius, Helena, Big Sandy, Glendive, Browning, Baker, Havre and Stevensville. He also has helped build parks in Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee in South Dakota.
HAMILTON – Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament is at it again.
The band's bassist has pledged $60,000 to Hamilton to help jump-start efforts to build a skateboard park. This is the 10th park the longtime skateboarder has helped finance in Montana in the last 10 years.
Last year, it was Stevensville’s turn.
After Ament’s donation and an equally generous offer from Bill Watkins of Discover Care Center, the community raised the money needed to make that dream come true.
Recently, Ament offered the same amount to the Circle 13 organization that has been working for years to bring a skateboard park to Hamilton.
The Circle 13 group jumped over its first major hurdle when it acquired about a half-acre on the southeastern edge of the county fairgrounds in Hamilton.
Not long after that, Watkins stepped forward to offer a $50,000 matching grant to kick off the fundraising effort. And then came Ament’s pledge.
Circle 13 president Bryan Dufresne said they have about $120,000 of the estimated $500,000 that it will cost to build the park, which will include a restroom, lightning, landscaping and a paved parking area.
In a 2015 interview with Vice, Ament said he has been an avid boarder since 1975 but fell away from the sport for a few years. When he took it back up while on tour in Australia, he was inspired to help share the experience back home.
His first donation was to help build a park in Seattle, where he was living at the time.
"After that I went to city council meetings for about five years to try and get something built in Missoula,'' he said in the Vice interview. "That one was a brutal process because it was such a big city. But then I helped get the St. Ignatius Park built and that was super-easy because it was a small town.
"That's when the focus became on these rural towns and these isolated areas, whether they're reservations or not – I don't really see color when it comes to that. I think kids who are in isolated places have a tough hill to climb,'' Ament, who grew up in Big Sandy, told Vice.
According to Pearl Jam's website, Ament has helped build skateboard parks in the Montana communities of Missoula, St. Ignatius, Helena, Big Sandy, Glendive, Browning, Baker, Havre and Stevensville. He also has helped build parks in Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee in South Dakota.
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