New partner stokes hope at Greenport Skate Park
The Greenport Skate Park recently received a huge shot in the arm in the form of a new partnership with Dominick Marcoccia of Marco Masonry Corp. Mr. Marcoccia brings his experience designing and building skate parks throughout the northeast and his 20 years of skateboarding to the project.
“I’m passionate about skateboarding, and more passionate about skate parks and skate park construction, building ramps. It’s a really fulfilling thing to make something and watch it come to fruition. And [skate parks] being a functional art piece — I really, really enjoy that,” said Mr. Marcoccia. “[I’ve been] skateboarding for over 20 years now, and having a passion for building things, it kind of naturally happened that I started working on projects revolving around DIYs and skate parks and things of that nature.”
Mr. Marcoccia has been in touch with the main organizer of the rehabilitation effort, Rena Wilhelm, off and on throughout the design process and subsequent fundraising efforts.
“When I was posting our [original] design plans, I remember getting this message from this guy … It was Dominick, who was like, ‘Are these the final plans?’” said Ms. Wilhelm. “And I was like, ‘No, this is just a preliminary thing to kind of show people what the potential is.’ When we hired this [original] designer, he put all the wish list [items] in. And Dominick said, ‘You know, there’s a few things that don’t make sense.’”
But because the groundbreaking was so far off, any issues with the design took a backseat to building momentum for the cause. Ms. Wilhelm persevered, raising money and keeping the flame lit for the skate community.
At one point, one of the volunteers suggested that Ms. Wilhelm pin the design to the top of the skate park’s Instagram to remind people what the effort was working towards. Once again, Mr. Marcoccia reached out to ask if they were the final plans. When she went to reply, Ms. Wilhelm realized that they had been in contact before.
“He was like, ‘You know, if you ever need me to help.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, you know, sure.’ I had no idea he was a cement contractor,” said Ms. Wilhelm.
As she learned more about him, however, Ms. Wilhelm discovered that Mr. Marcoccia had worked on both DIY installations and officially sanctioned parks. He also builds residential skateboard ramps for at-home use.
“The whole idea of who this guy is came more into focus, and I realized he was actually offering to help us,” said Ms. Wilhelm. “I said, ‘Maybe you should just come out to the park and see it so that we’re on the same page.’ I wanted to see how he might be able to help. So he met with [skate park board members] Dan and Collette at the park, and after that meeting, we invited him to one of our board meetings to discuss what his vision was for it.”
Mr. Marcoccia came up with a plan to build the park, and his estimate came in at a fraction of the original design. The money raised so far will now cover nearly all the cost.
“We’re over $100,000 now, and then we only have a little bit more to go,” said Ms. Wilhelm. “It’s very doable.”
“I’m really looking forward to it, as well as all my friends and coworkers who are going to be involved. I’m excited for Rena that all of her efforts are finally going to come to fruition. And I’m happy that I can help in any way I can,” said Mr. Marcoccia. “It seems that the 2020s have proven to be skate park renaissance for Long Island. It’s exciting that there are all these parks popping up, and I think the entire Long Island skateboard community is looking forward to each and every one of them, especially this one, considering there’s been so much heart put into making it happen.”
