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Skateboarders are rolling to relieve hunger this holiday season by collecting food for the Utah Food Bank.
The nonprofit Skate4Homies and board outfitter Yür Designs of Murray enlisted the help of local skateboarders to collect food in the weeks before Christmas. With collection points around Salt Lake City, the campaign brought in about 1,000 pounds of canned goods for the Utah Food Bank.
Todd Ingersoll, the founder and director of Skate4Homies, said the food drive received wide support from the community through programs such as distributing donation sacks at homes and schools.
"People are pretty generous," he said.
Skate4Homies is a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit that helps less-fortunate youngsters hone their skateboarding and snowboarding skills while also contributing to their communities.
In 2010, Skate4Homies partnered with Yür Designs — owned by Nate Ure — to encourage art through products ranging from T-shirts to skateboard and snowboard "skins." Ure is a passionate skateboarder and snowboarder who works with another group of about two dozen skaters and snowboarders known as GRoMITS help with community events.
Together, the two groups are working with more than 100 skaters to develop talents such as art and music in way that will counter the negative perceptions of boarders, who "get a bad rap at times."
"What we [offer] is a cultural alternative," Ingersoll said. "It helps build character and confidence in the arts and teaches things like graffiti is not cool. We offer alternatives to things lake selling drugs or stealing cars. Always keeping it positive."
Skate4Homies channels its boarders' energy and skills into a remodeled warehouse , which includes a training facility that helps kids of all abilities with their skateboard techniques.
"Our kids vary from beginners to advanced," Ingersoll said. "We have created space in our warehouse with a variety of skateboarding surfaces like stairs, ledges, handrails. This is street skating, based on what is found in city plazas. We also have ramps, quarter-pipes, banks and different kinds of angled surfaces."
Skate4Homies provides lessons to high-risk kids Monday through Friday, Ingersoll added, with the help of YouthCity, a Salt Lake City-backed after-school program.