Morning Sentinel
NORTH ANSON A skateboarder's dream come true
BY DOUG HARLOW
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 10/01/2008

NORTH ANSON -- The half-pipes, quarter-pipes and rails are in place and young skateboarders are doing "ollies" and kick-flips in a new skatepark next to the elementary school.

There is a cool-looking sign naming the park "Damon's Dream."

Damon would have loved the place.

Damon Lasley, for whom the park is named, was 14 when he was killed in a dirt-bike accident 4 years ago.

School Administrative District 74 directors later voted unanimously to turn crumbling tennis courts at the Garret Schenck school over to the town of Anson, which in turn allowed Damon's mother, Susanne Lamb, to get started turning it into a skatepark dedicated to her late son.

Lamb and her "Dream Team" of friends and family members raised money and before long, the park was ready for the kids.

"He loved skateboarding and he loved soccer -- he was very athletic with everything," Lamb said of her son. "The tennis courts were taken down and everything was grown in, so my son started putting in boards and ramps.

"He passed away in June 2004 and we decided to continue on with his dream of a skatepark. He had just graduated eighth grade here at Garret Schenck."

Damon would have graduated Carrabec High School with his class this past June.

Lamb said volunteers collected donations at craft fairs and set up a toll bridge, where $1,300 was raised for the park.

The "Dream Team" consisted of Damon's classmates and their brothers and sisters, along with Lamb's parents Bill and Susan Lamb and families from SAD 74 towns, including Scott and Michelle Murray and Bruce and Crystal Manzer, of Anson, and Elaine and Chuck Aloes of Solon, who made the "Damon's Dream" sign for the park.

Dawson and Dylan Price, 8 and 14, part of the Damon's Dream Team, said they remember Damon and now enjoy skateboarding at the park named for him.

"I think it's pretty cool for the little town we live in," Dylan said. "The one in Skowhegan is good; it might be a little bit better, but it's a bigger town and they have more money than we do."

A couple of other boys at the park one recent afternoon said the park really fills a need.

"I come here almost every day," Alan Manzer, 15, said.

Tylar Laudieri, 17, agreed.

"I like it," he said. "It's the only place I can skate because I don't go to other towns a lot."

Lamb said she would like to expand and improve the park to make a bigger and better dream come true.

The Dream Team is preparing a grant application to the Tony Hawk Foundation, an organization run by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, promoting skateparks in under-served areas.

"I have a couple of designs for the lay out of a skatepark, but we need contractors to do it professionally," she said.

Donations still are being accepted at Skowhegan Savings Bank, through the Damon Michael Lasley Memorial Skatepark Fund, care of Susanne Lamb or Susan Lamb, Damon's grandmother.

The park, measuring 120 by 80 feet, is open daily after school from 3 p.m. until dusk and on weekends or non-school days from 9 a.m. until dusk.

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534, ext. 342

dharlow@centralmaine.com

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