Baby Blue Tile

Wesley Trbovich

A Skate is a charity organization for children with autism. On Wednesday, June 27^th, I had the amazing opportunity to hang out at Arto’s house for a BBQ and pool session with A Skate’s founder Crys Worley and some other volunteers for the organization. Mason, a soon to be ripper, watched in awe from the deck. He had never stepped on a skateboard before and he swore he never would. “No way,” he kept saying. “It’s too scary!” I was able to get him to sit in the shallow end and watch the action from there. He summoned up enough courage to allow me to push him up and down the transition while he sat on the board. He soon graduated and reluctantly agreed to try a few runs standing up.

After the first go around, his fear was quickly replaced with an overwhelming excitement. “Again, again, again,” was all he could say. The magical look on these childrens faces brought back the feeling that I felt the first time that I got on a skateboard. The freedom. The innocence. Their glows quickly became contagious. I wish that I could somehow bottle up this moment and keep it for later.

As long as we never lose sight of why we started skating in the first place, we’ll always have our own little fountain of youth. I would like to thank Crys Worley for all the time and effort that she puts into helping children with autism and for creating such a wonderful organization.

Thank you to Arto Saari, Jeff Fribourg and Joel Ahren for the stellar images. Thanks- Wesley Trbovich