The Martha's Vineyard Skate Park is a town park, in and owned by, the town of Oak Bluffs. It was built on land donated by the high school and leased to the town of Oak Bluffs. Construction of the park was entirely financed by the Martha's Vineyard Skate Park Association, a nonprofit, 501(c)3 corporation. The Association raised the entire costs of the park through gifts, fund-raising, and donations from the island towns. The park did not cost the Town of Oak Bluffs any money to build. Island workers contributed time, money, equipment , supplies and expertise to help build the park. It was truly a community effort.
How do you get to build a skate park on an island with six separate towns? Well it's not easy and it takes a long time. Land on Martha's Vineyard is exceedingly expensive, the wealthy residents leave after the summer and the rest of us hang on until the Spring brings warm weather and tourist dollars back to the island.
Skate boarding has been popular here for a long time, but it was always public streets, loading docks, home-made ramps and parking lots. Adult skaters, parents and business people got together and formed an informal organization. We attended meetings with several of the towns' Park & Recreation departments. Interest grew among the skaters as word of our efforts spread. We eventually decided to incorporate as a non-profit organization to legitimize our cause.
We also approached the town meeting in 5 of the 6 island towns and asked them for seed money. We did not ask the Town of Oak Bluffs because that is the central town on the island and it is where we wanted to build the park. New England town meetings are notoriously parsimonious but each town voted money toward the skate park. With that financial start we were able to raise more money and to start looking for a location. Eventually we raised enough awareness that the high school (which owns a chunk of land larger than it needed) agreed to lease a portion of that land to the Town of Oak Bluffs for the purpose of building a skate park. That required an act of the Massachusetts Legislature. The town accepted the land unanimously at a town meeting and the Skate Park Association assumed the task of planning, funding and building a skate park.