Montreal students deck out skateboards for less fortunate children around the world
Jacqueline Hayes-Babczak holds up her freshly painted skateboard.
It’s designed with a traffic theme, with overlapping road signs and a highway snaking across the deck. It’s one of two boards she designed for Skateboards for Hope, a community organization that gives out skateboards to children who might not otherwise have the chance to try the sport.
“Playing sports my whole life has allowed me to create so many new friends and be present in my community, so I think these skateboards will do the same,” she says.
Hayes-Babczak is a student at The Study. The upper-level art class has taken on the project of painting the boards to be donated.
"It’s great because it’s not just going to be displayed on the wall or in the museum, it’s going to be used,” said Grade 10 student Vivian Chui.
Around 2,500 boards are being decorated by Montreal-area students right now.
In it’s nearly decade in existence, Skateboards for Hope have given out 9,000 boards around the world.
Skateboards for Hope gives kids the chance to design decks that will be sent around the world. (Kelly Greig/CTV News)
“Knowing that that art is going to be given to somebody who maybe doesn’t have the same circumstance as you but will find joy in skateboarding, I think that’s the whole point,” said founder Betty Esperanza.
Many of the boards painted in Montreal are headed to Uganda and Cuba.
“Physically, mentally and spiritually, skateboarding is a very community-oriented activity because even though you do skateboarding alone, you do it with other friends,” she added.
Painting decks is also a way for the students to learn about street and pop art styles. For some it’s a chance to express themselves.
"I was having a hard time doing all the homework, it’s very stressful, and I would think of a man who is trying to create something, but they are having a hard time,” said Grade 10 student Gloria Yang.
Chui’s board shows a wide-open mouth.
"It relates to speaking out or speaking out against injustices,” she said.
For the organization’s founder, skateboarding is more than a sport. "Anyone who learns to balance on the board, that’s pretty metaphoric with life. You fall off, you get back on. When you’re on it for a minute, you think ‘oh, i can do this’.' That positive re-enforcement that you tell yourself translates into everything in life,” said Esperanza.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
BREAKING Police cordon off Iran consulate in Paris where man threatens to blow himself up: French media
French police cordoned off the Iranian consulate in Paris on Friday, where a man was threatening to blow himself up, Europe 1 radio and BFM TV.
Some Canadian families will receive up to $620 per child today
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
BREAKING Iran fires at apparent Israeli attack drones near Isfahan air base and nuclear site
An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Ottawa to force banks to call carbon rebate a carbon rebate in direct deposits
Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
Ontario woman loses $15,000 to fake Walmart job scam
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
After COVID, WHO defines disease spread 'through air'
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
Prince Harry formally confirms he is now a U.S. resident
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.