Local businessman Gregg Watson passed away 14 years ago, but his legacy of providing teens a safe place to hang out continues to live on in Brown County.
On April 15, ground was broken on a skate park at Deer Run Park, in the wooded area near the park office. It is expected to be finished this summer.
Kids On Wheels, a group of teens and their parents who made the park a reality, decided to name it Victory Park in honor of Watson, who, with his wife, Lauri, opened the Victory Family Fun Center in 1999 to give local teens a safe place to hang out.
“Victory” came from the Bible, 1 John 5:4, which states: “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]“Here’s the thing: I’m a Christian businessman. This is going to be the Victory Family Fun Center. What we’re doing here is filling the community’s need,” Watson said in a 1999 Democrat story. “I’m going to provide something for the kids so the parents can have peace of mind.”
Lauri Kritzer spoke at last week’s groundbreaking ceremony. The couple grew up in Brown County; Kritzer graduated from Brown County High School in 1983. “The first chance we got, really, we came back to Brown County, because we loved this place and we wanted these people to raise our family,” she said.
“It was in Gregg’s heart to do something, because we never had anywhere to go (as kids). … We had the most extraordinary times of our lives there (at the fun center). Even now, it’s been 14 years or so since he’s been gone and 12 years since it closed, but I see his legacy and his servant heart is still after the kids.”
Watson’s older brother, father, mother-in-law and youngest son, Chase, also attended the groundbreaking.
Colleen Smith first approached Watson’s mother-in-law, Pam Helkema, about naming the new skate park in honor of him. Helkema started to cry. “I couldn’t talk,” she said.
Helkema said Watson was humble and probably wouldn’t have wanted the notoriety, but he would have been happy that the skate park was being built for the youth here.
“Gregg really enjoyed having the teenage kids there. He wanted them there. He welcomed them. He engaged with them. He didn’t want to run them off,” said Watson’s older brother, Breese. “He wanted a place for them. He wanted them to be comfortable there.”
Chase Watson and his grandfather, George Watson, shared a shovel to help break ground on the skate park, along with Isaiah Smith and Emma Snyder, both founding members of KOW.
‘Wonderful addition’
The skies were blue and the air was warm as the first shovels-full of dirt were turned — a major contrast to the cold winter day when Kids On Wheels first met at the Brown County Public Library in January 2017.
Snyder, now a senior at Brown County High School, attended that meeting.
“Over two years ago, what was a simple idea between friends quickly became fundraisers, radio interviews, news stories and meetings with many local councils, which has led us here today,” she said at the ceremony.
Snyder thanked BETA board President Clara Stanley for her support of the project from the beginning. Stanley was one of the parents who helped the students run their first meeting.
Isaiah Smith proposed building a skate park in Brown County to his high school principal when he was a junior in 2017 after attending that first meeting. Even though the park did not get built in time for his graduation, he fulfilled his senior project requirements because of all the work he had done for it, including going to meetings and creating designs.
“It’s hard to be a skateboarder in Nashville,” Isaiah said to the crowd as they laughed.
“I can tell you that as a kid I used to set ramps up against my dad’s tractor and skate down that — plywood, anything I can find in the yard — so I’m so excited that we’ll be able to utilize a legitimate skate park.”
Along with the skating area, the park will feature a gaga pit (a circular, enclosed area for playing a dodgeball-like game), hammock swings and tire swings.
A member of KOW will build the hammock swing area and will submit a grant to fund it as his Eagle Scout project. Isaiah also built picnic tables for his Eagle Scout project, and his brother, Elijah, raised $1,000 to build the gaga pit for his own Eagle Scout project.
The group is currently raising money to make handicap-accessible features, like a wheelchair swing and a “wave” feature for the skate park which children in wheelchairs can ride on.
“We are really excited about this opportunity. I think it’s going to be a wonderful addition to Deer Run Park here,” said parks and rec Director Mark Shields.
“My hat goes off to the Kids On Wheels group and BETA for all of the hard work you guys have done. I look forward to getting this started and seeing an influx of new people coming out trying a new activity here in Nashville.”
Park leaders are working on strategies to get children to the skate park safely, as there is no sidewalk or trail from Nashville to the park just outside town limits.
‘Not just a skate park’
The park will be built by Hunger Skate Parks of Bloomington. Christy Weezer and Bart Smith from Hunger Skate Parks both attended the groundbreaking.
Hunger Skate Parks first attended a BETA meeting two years ago. “We just got so excited. The kids have been working hard since then. To see this, the start of this amazing skate park that we think will have something in it for everyone, we’re just really happy to be here,” Weezer said. “We build parks all over the country, but to be from Bloomington and being able to work here in Nashville, we’re very excited to be here.”
Isaiah and his mother both worked on fundraising, including writing grants, and attended various meetings to get approvals.
One of those grants was a CreatINg Places matching grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. Last September, KOW reached their $50,000 fundraising goal two weeks before the deadline. Their goal was to raise $50,000 in 45 days. IHCDA then matched their funds with another $50,000.
IHCDA Executive Director Jacob Sipe also attended the groundbreaking ceremony. “That’s a lot for any community or for any organization. I’m really proud that this team had 103 patrons who contributed their funds,” Sipe said.
“Thank you for ensuring our rural communities and towns, like Nashville, are engaged with our youth and are attracting and retaining our talent, which is what this is all about,” he said “– having a place they can go and enjoy their time and create memories for themselves and their classmates and future generations.”
A $5,000 grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation was included in that total, as well as a $5,000 grant from South Central Indiana REMC’s Operation RoundUp. The {span}Brown County Community Foundation and the Fabulous 50 Women’s Giving Circle also donated to the project.
Last summer, single mother Anna Hofstetter received a $1,000 tip when she was working as a server at Hotel Nashville. Instead of using it to buy something for her own children, she donated it to the children of Brown County and KOW’s matching grant campaign. Her gift received statewide media attention.
Hofstetter ended up getting a card from the couple who had left her the tip, saying her donation was “very heart touching.”
“There was always something in the back of my mind (saying), ‘Did I do the right thing? Would they be happy or would they be disappointed with what I did with it?’ That was very validating,” she said.
Hofstetter said the groundbreaking ceremony was a celebration of the work local teens did for this project.
“Without young voices, our world has no future. The youth are our future, the future,” said Hofstetter, who was elected to the town council last fall.
“This is not just a skate park, but a testament that when we put ourselves together, we can and we will accomplish anything.”
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Kids on Wheels is raising money to provide handicap-accessible pieces for the skate park at Deer Run Park.
Those include a concrete path to each of the park’s features, two accessible parking spaces, an accessible picnic table, a swing for the hammock swing area, a gate for the gaga pit, a swing for the tire swing area, and a wheelchair swing.
The group is also raising funds for a “wave,” a feature that children in wheelchairs can ride on in the park.
Send checks to P.O. Box 384, Nashville, IN 47448.
Hunger Skate Parks is building the park and encourages locals of all ages to help. Updates, work dates and project needs will be posted on the “Kids on Wheels Nashville IN” Facebook page.
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