To the Editor:

I am reaching out as a part of and on behalf of the Northampton community skatepark. Summer is just around the corner and already so much has been accomplished at our hometown park. All of us here deeply understand how fortunate we are to be able to share this common ground where younger generations come and are welcomed to learn, form lasting friendships and contribute to the "with hard work comes great reward" atmosphere of the park.

We would like to genuinely thank Mayor Thomas Reenock as well as the entire council and Borough of Northampton for granting us the freedom to build, move and add on to our ongoing and ever changing work. We would also like to thank all who donate their time, effort and supplies to keep this labor of love going strong. All of these contributions and opportunities are greatly and widely appreciated. We work to keep up with and maintain a clean park as well, which would not be possible if not for the borough acknowledging this and supplying the pickup and removal of garbage and waste from our facility.

Our goal here at the skatepark is to create and maintain a safe and secure atmosphere where everyone participates and works together to achieve the goal at hand. Eventually, as older members and founders of the park span out and adapt to higher responsibilities, they look to and encourage younger generations who were taught to respect and appreciate this park to continue creating, building and welcoming new faces.

We would like everyone to know how proud, motivated and excited we all are to see what can be built and how much may be achieved with our participants in the quickly approaching summer season. We encourage everyone to come by, take a look around and feel free to help us build and add new amazing features to the park. Donations of screws, cement/mortar, tools, etc. are always greatly appreciated as well.

Julia Yellen, 22, Northampton

Matthew Hughes, 24, Catasaqua

Nate Buschi, 17, Northampton

Patrick Boyle, 17, Northampton

Nick Mark, 15, Northampton

Adam Knopf, 15, Northampton

Nick Rivera, 22, Walnutport

Michael Brown, 30, Northampton

Jonathan Eckert, 21, Whitehall