Greetings, good people! My name is Craig and this is my first GoFundMe campaign. I'm absolutely thrilled to be one step closer to achieving my most unusual and most excellent objective. I'll satisfy curiosities now: my goal has been to purchase/gather skateboard components and ship those items to the Luanda Skate School, located in Luanda, Angola (Africa). For the most part, the procuring part of my mission is done, but the shipping won't be cheap and that's where I'm going to need help! For those still reading (thank you!), here's a little bit of the story:

Most people immediately ask how I even stumbled across this school. Fantastic question. Blame my algorithms (they just lead and I follow), but I'm sure it's in part a result of me being a 50-something skateboarder and a frequent visitor to various skateboard supply websites. But, partnered with Instagram, the universe chose to cross my path with that of Mr. Nilton "Nilly" Carvalho, a coach at the Luanda Skate School.

What's the Luanda Skate School? Another fantastic question. The Luanda Skate School (https://concretejunglefoundation.org/luanda-skatepark-angola.php) is what we'd probably call a skate camp here in the United States. The school's skatepark was built in 2018 by the Concrete Jungle Foundation (CJF), which partners with various charitable organizations to build skateparks in impoverished and underserved areas such as Angola, Morocco, Peru, and Jamaica. The Luanda Skate School caters to at-risk youth, otherwise susceptible to drug, gang, and other criminal activity common in economically disadvantaged areas. Obviously, the mission of any skate school is to introduce people to the sport and help existing skaters become better skaters. Nilly's efforts reach further, though - the Luanda Skate School provides each child with a safe and welcoming community, a place to relieve stress and anxiety, and an opportunity to improve self-confidence among peers while doing something they love - skateboarding!

The school, however, is located in an area where there is absolutely nowhere to purchase skateboarding equipment. So, I quickly deduced that simply donating money wouldn't do much good if there was nowhere to exchange it for the things that are needed. Similar situation in Peru, according to CJF. I, however, have access to many sources of equipment here in the U.S. Historically, the challenges seem to be import/export related, and few, if any, of the recipients in-country have the money or resources to hire a freight broker to release items from the port of entry, which is generally where they remain. Working with acquaintances in my professional network, I have managed to crack the code and provide for the shipment of the first new skateboard equipment that the school will have received in years. Much of the equipment currently being used appears to be that which was hand-carried into Angola in 2018 when CJF built the park. CJF, in fact, wished me luck in this endeavor and I can't wait to demonstrate what's possible!

Why is this important to me? Because skateboarding is one of my favorite things, even at 50+ (I'm a lot more risk-averse than I was at 15, and I wear ALL THE PADS), and the skateboard is so much more than a toy. Heck, skateboarding is an Olympic sport now! But, to a child, the skateboard is something that leads to community building, new friendships, a confidence boost when he/she drops in for the first time, better creativity and problem-solving skills, and provides a much-needed outlet for all the energy children possess. Even now, when I step on a board, I feel free, happy, present, and young when I skateboard, and it's a very rewarding feeling when I manage to navigate a new feature. I hope to still be skating when I'm 70. Most importantly, this is all important to me because I know that this small investment will change at least one child's life in a positive, meaningful, and direct manner. It feels great to give and to be able to help share the enjoyment I have for the sport, even with people I've never met, thousands of miles away.

I'm super stoked about this becoming closer to a reality. I'm proud of myself for having the follow-through and patience to even get to this point - seeing if this was even possible has been weeks in the making. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to make a direct, tangible impact in a child's life using something that was such a fixture in my childhood: the skateboard.

If you've made it this far, thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for caring, and thank you for any help you can afford to help me keep up the forward momentum. If this goes really well and I get an overabundance of support, I may do this again!