Upward Intuition wins $100,000 'A Community Thrives' grant for downtown Pensacola skate park

Jim Little | Pensacola News Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Jon Shell receives surprise $100,000 grant for Upward Intuition The Pensacola News Journal and Gannett surprises Upward Intuition founder Jon Shell with a surprise $100,000 grant to go toward the Blake Doyle Community Park.

The movement to build a public skate park in downtown Pensacola is $100,000 closer to becoming a reality.

Gannett, the Pensacola News Journal's parent company, announced the winners of the Gannet Foundation's "A Community Thrives" (ACT) grants for 2018 on Wednesday, and Upward Intuition in Pensacola was announced as one of only two $100,000 grant recipients out of the more than 500 submissions from 40 states.

Gannett, which owns all of the newspapers under the USA TODAY NETWORK, created ACT through its foundation to grant nonprofit organizations with projects focused on improving local communities in the categories of Wellness, Education, or Arts and Culture.

Jon Shell, founder of Upward Intuition, was invited to the News Journal's office Tuesday afternoon to discuss the status of the project and was surprised during an interview with the news that Upward Intuition had won the $100,000 grant.

"Oh, my God," Shell said. "I was wondering what you guys were up to. Oh man!"

Upward Intuition was founded in 2015 by Shell with the commitment to build a public skate park that will occupy one city block at the end of the planned Hollice T. Williams Park that will stretch the length of the Interstate 110 overpass.

Escambia County was awarded a $1.6 million grant to design Williams Park in April.

The skate park will be named the Blake Doyle Community Park in memory of Shell's late friend Blake Doyle, who was killed by a train in 2015.

Upward Intuition, through the park, seeks to address crime and drug prevention, and add to the neighborhood with things like From the Ground Up Community Garden, walking paths, an integrated amphitheater and stage, and the public skate park.

The group hopes to offer activities for all ages on a daily basis to create "a perpetual hub of outdoor, family friendly activity," according to its grant application.

Shell said the money from the grant will go into the construction cost to build the estimated $1.25 million skate boarding park.

"It's going straight toward construction, and straight toward concrete, steel, rebar, stairs, quarter pipes," Shell said.

Shell said having a quality public skate park is important for Pensacola.

"There's such a huge and thriving skate scene here, and these kids just don't have a place to be," Shell said. "If you play baseball, football, basketball, you have coaches. It's structured. You have a facility that typically the city provides. And skateboarders, rollerbladers, BMXers, they don't have that structure, and that's what a skate park provides."

Shell said the grant puts him on track to raise $500,000 toward the park by the end of the year.

The Kugelman Foundation also awarded the group a $250,000 grant in December.

Part of the ACT application process was a crowd-funding campaign that was promoted over the USA TODAY NETWORK where Upward Intuition raised more than $10,000.

"It's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to support an organization in your community that you know is doing so much to make a difference," said Lisa Nellessen Savage, executive editor of the News Journal. "Upward Intuition and Jon are absolutely ideal grant winners because it's clear how much they care about our community, and the people in our community, and bringing us all together."

ACT received more than 500 submissions across 40 states and awarded 16 grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, for a total of $600,000.

Upward Intuition was one of two organizations selected for the $100,000 grant with the other going to the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio, to build a grocery store in a "food desert" of the Walnut Hills community.

"We were so moved by the number of inspiring ideas submitted to ACT this year," said Bob Dickey, president and chief executive officer of Gannett, in a company press release. "We are excited about the opportunity to empower these organizations to create real change in their communities."

In May, Upward Intuition received a commitment from Councilwoman Sherri Myers to push to find the funds needed to build the park in the city's next fiscal year.

Myers made the commitment after facing criticism for comments she made suggesting a ban of skateboarding on public sidewalks throughout the city, but she later said the comments were meant to be a sarcastic point to highlight how different areas of the city are treated unfairly.

"I believe we have the money," Myers said in May. "It's how we prioritize money, and I don't agree with the priorities that I've seen in this city. So, this is what I'm going to commit to do. This issue, thanks to my big mouth y'all, right now, very soon, we're going to start having budget workshops. For the first time since I've been on City Council we have our own budget analyst. What I'm going to ask him to do is find the money."

Shell said Tuesday with winning the ACT grant, he's confident he will be able to break ground on the park in early 2019.

"I can assure everyone that I'm going to do everything in my power to make that happen," Shell said. "And do as much as I can to work with the city and the county and try and speed that process up."

More information about Upward Intuition can be found on its Facebook page or at upwardintuition.org.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com or 850-208-9827.