The Fort Apache Reservation, home of the White Mountain Apache tribe, is more than 600 miles away from Ojai Valley School, but really it is in a completely different world.
Located in the northeast part of Arizona, the 1.6-million-acre reservation consists of approximately 16,000 tribal members and is home to more than 400 miles of streams and 11,407-foot Mount Baldy, one of the tribe’s sacred peaks.
However there is one thing that ties these two worlds together: skateboarding.
On Saturday, the OVS skaters will be doing what they love to raise money for their fellow skaters on the reservation.
The Upper Campus Skate-A-Thon will start with AP Psychology teacher Carmen Doane-Barkan giving an introduction to the cause, which is known as the Apache Passion Project. That project seeks to raise money to build the first skate park on the Fort Apache Reservation.
Afterward, OVS freshmen Dylan Hamilton-West and Eli Roston, who are the student leaders of the project, will lead skate lessons for beginners, and demonstrate the course. Then all in attendance will enjoy some music, and skate, walk, run, scooter, or do whatever they can to raise money for the cause.
“Diversity of experience and exposure is everything in this life,” Mrs. Doane-Barkan said. “OVS is committed to providing these experiences to students, has done so for more than a century, and that is why I am a teacher here, to be a part of a collective that is committed to that self-inquiry and integration of life.”
Mrs. Doane-Barkan, who in addition to her teaching duties also heads the Diversity and Inclusivity Committee at OVS Upper Campus, recently learned about the Apache Passion Project while purposely trying to diversify her Instagram feed.
She learned that skateboarding is the fastest-growing sport on many Native reservations, including Fort Apache. Understanding the fast-growing interest in skateboarding at OVS, Mrs. Doane- Barkan set out to recruit Upper Campus skateboarders to help support the cause.
With a plan in place, the skateboarders have spent the last week circulating pledge forms that ask students, faculty and staff to promise money for laps rolled at the upcoming Skate-A-Thon.
“A lot of friendships and bonds can be built that create a community, and that is something that is really important to skateboarders, to have that sense of community,” explained Dylan about one of the goals of the project.
Skateboarding is a sport that has massively grown in popularity. The board sport will soon be a part of arguably the biggest event in the world, the Olympics, starting in the summer of 2021.
In the Ojai Valley School community, the interest in the board sport for many OVS kids starts at Lower Campus with Ryan Lang’s Skate Club, and the 8th grade wood shop project where students build their own skateboards. That has created a love for skateboarding from the Lower Campus to several students at the Upper Campus.
This year skateboarding is especially popular at the Upper Campus, with a relatively large skate LEAP, and several equipment donations. Now it is time to give back, and spread the joy that skating brings.
“(Skateboarding) makes it easy to make a lot of good friends and connections,” Dylan said about why this project and skateboarding means so much to him.
Mrs. Doane-Barkan wants to take this project further.
She hopes that this project will be the start of a great mutual friendship between OVS and the Apache skaters.
A camping trip on the reservation to spend some time, get to know, and most importantly skate with the Apache skateboards is the next step in the plans.
“We have so much to learn as a species,” Mrs. Doane-Barkan added. “And the only way to do that is to engage, with humility and respect.”
