Being a skateboarder means more than just riding a skateboard. That’s what we always say, but what does that really mean? Is it just something we tell ourselves so we can feel a little less bad about spending our Saturdays drinking beer with our friends in dirty corners of the city or wasting a night at the skate park trying a ledge trick that some 12-year-old kid in California has already done better than we ever will?

This winter, I’ve seen what being a skateboarder really means and surprisingly, it didn’t really involve much skateboarding. It did involve a lot of skaters, power tools, dozens of sheets of plywood, and more 2x4s than I ever expected to handle in my entire life.

I’m talking, of course, about building Freedom Skatepark. It exists because skaters wanted somewhere to skate when it’s too cold, rainy, or dark to skate outside. Instead of just wishing, we worked together, chipped in our time and money, and built something bigger than any of us could have done alone.

Since we opened our doors for our first event in November, more than 300 people from all around the tri-state area have come to skate the park. We’ve worked together with The Boys and Girls Club and other nonprofits to give away dozens of skateboards to kids who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford them. We’ve hosted concerts, art shows, and contests that bring together skateboarders, artists, and musicians to inspire and learn from one another.

As an all-volunteer non-profit, Freedom Skatepark does not make any money. All of the funds we raise go straight back into building new ramps, organizing better events, and keeping the doors open and the lights on. Everyone involved with the organization works a full-time job. We build new obstacles at night after work, organize events by making phone calls and sending emails on our lunch breaks, and cover costs with money of our own savings when we can’t bring in enough donations.

This works because being a skateboarder really does mean more than just riding a skateboard. It means leaning into new challenges, building new spots, giving back to the culture, and welcoming the next generation of rippers into the skate community.

More than anything, Freedom is a monument to what skaters can achieve when we live up to our own lofty ideas about what we are. No investors, no big-ticket sponsorships, no celebrity backers, just skaters who want a place to skate in the winter. Working hard working together, and building something awesome.

Skaters built Freedom, and skaters will make the park’s future. Just like the skaters who built it, the park continues to grow, evolve, and improve. At the moment, we are working with the city to negotiate a deal to guarantee long-term access to the space we currently occupy. Regardless of how those negotiations go, we will continue pushing and continue building on what we have accomplished — whether in our current space or somewhere new —because that is what skateboarders do.

Thank you to all the skaters who have made this possible. Whether you helped build a ramp, made a donation online, taught a grom how to ollie, or just came and ripped at one of our events, you are the reason the park exists and you are the reason it will last. If you haven’t gotten a chance to visit, come skate. Being a skateboarder might mean more than just riding a skateboard, but we built this park to skate, and we want to share that with as many people as possible.

Jake McNichol is the founder of Freedom Skatepark. You can keep up with Freedom on Instagram and Facebook.