Community Corner

Building a Safe Place to Skate

Croftonite Eric Tedrow is working to help create a skate park and safe place for area skaters following a 2009 gang beating of a local teen.

Crofton’s Eric Tedrow believes “if you build it, they will come.” The rollerblader is not focused on a Field of Dreams, but a field off Route 424 to become the home of Crofton’s first skate park.

“Not every child is cut out for team sports,” said Tedrow. The 23-year-old South River High School alum grew up on Mayapple Way. Today he volunteers with area teens interested in action sports through the Crofton Skate Park Development Committee.

“Give children a place where they can push the boundaries of the sport. They need an outlet for that activity,” said Tedrow.

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The skate park group focuses on all alternative sports including skateboarding, rollerblading and scooters. It’s part of the Crofton Regional Community Center Board that’s to .

“It’s a nice thing when your community can offer an opportunity for people with a wide variety of interests,” he said.

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The CRCC’s push for a community center and skate park comes as the Crofton community mends from the . The 14-year-old was riding his bike along Nantucket Drive when a neighborhood gang beat him. He later died, but his legacy lives on through people like Tedrow. 

The rollerblader said skaters need a safe place to practice alternative sports. “Skaters often yearn to practice moves on ledges and ramps," said Tedrow. But Crofton’s planned communities don’t really offer these challenges.

“No matter how many parks you build it’s tough to erase the thrill of street skating,” said Tedrow. But he said skaters need a safe place to learn the basics.

“The answer to that is to build a skate park.”

Crofton’s nearest skate park is nearly eight miles away in Bowie. That’s where Tedrow said he has run into many youngsters from Crofton and Gambrills longing to learn.

“Around summer 2009, these kids came up to me and said ‘we’re getting rollerblades,’” said Tedrow. “I told them, ‘I want you to have my entire trick book mastered by the time the summer is over.'”

“I had a half dozen rollerbladers at Bowie that I taught,” he added. “I didn’t want them to give up rollerblading.”

Tedrow is studying psychology at The University of Maryland Baltimore County. He said he hopes to one day research alternative athletes.

“What makes them get out there and want to risk it all? There has to be a pattern,” said Tedrow.


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