One person's trash is another one's treasure. Well, at least that is what is happening with a once abandoned lot in Detroit.

Skateboard enthusiasts from within the city and the surrounding suburbs have been flocking to the corner of Davison and Klinger to take a shot at the Ride It Sculpture Park – even if it isn't officially completed just yet.

"I like the whole urban feel of it," Even Hutchings, 22, of Plymouth said. "I came here when it was being built and talked to the guys building it. Just to watch what all goes into it and how they are doing something for the community."

Those people doing something for the community are Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope. The husband and wife duo has been actively changing the neighborhoods of Detroit one unique community project at a time through its self-founded Power House Productions organization.

With many of the projects focusing on rebuilding houses like The Power House, Sound House, Yellow House, and even Squash House, the Ride It Sculpture Park is taking on a whole new angle to the unique community revival organization.

"There were a lot of empty lots on the Davison," Reichert said, who lives in walking distance from the park. "In a lot of ways, this is the entry point to the neighborhood. This is how we come and go most days from our neighborhood. We kind of just started thinking about what could happen here that could define the space a little bit better."

Now with the first phase of the skate park project completed, the project will look to advance into its next phase, where it will incorporate sculptural art as usable part of the skate park.

"The idea of just doing something sculptural with the landscape was really interesting to us," Reichert said. "That's why we call it Ride It Sculpture Park even though it is a skate park."

Out of the many projects that Reichert has helped develop through the Power House Project over the last seven years in the neighborhood, the Ride It Sculpture Park may have the biggest draw of them all.

Laying the ground work

One simply does not build a skate park without some knowledge of the sport and art of skateboarding. Although Reichert is not a skater herself, her husband Mitch and many of her friends have been taking part in world of skateboarding for as long as she can remember.

"Mitch grew up skateboarding," Reichert said. "A lot of my friends growing up were skateboarders so we kind of had this affinity to it anyway."

Because of the passion that her husband and friends shared with skateboarding, Reichert grew to appreciate what the sport really has to offer.

"I really think skateboarding is a way to think creatively and spatially about your surroundings," Reichert said. "You kind of have to think on your feet, problem solve in the air and figure things out. I think it does exercise a different part of your brain, and you just use it differently."

Although Reichert didn't know exactly what made a great skate park, her husband did. Going through connections to get anything from designers, trucks, builders and volunteers, the planning part of the whole effort came together quite quickly.

With support coming from everywhere, including Chiips – a new skateshop in Hamtramck that relocated from Plymouth – the only thing left to do was to tae care of any red tape that it may face with city zoning policies. Luckily enough, that was pretty easy as well.

"The support of the neighborhood was pretty much immediate," Reichert said. "We had to go through a zoning petition so we had to tell all of the neighbors within 500 feet (of the park) what the plan was."

Although there were a few minor holdouts with worries about too many kids congregating in that area, the neighborhood support was "overwhelmingly" in support of the project.

Of course, this project wouldn't have gotten anywhere without money. Thanks to help from Chiips and other local business to put on fundraisers to help fund the Ride It Sculpture Park project. So far, over $50,000 has been raised to help each fund phase one of the project.

But for phase two and phase three – which will finally incorporate the sculptures into the park – Reichert expects that $50,000 will need to be raised for each remaining phase but still remains confident.

"Each one of (the phases) has sort of different challenges," Reichert said. "This one was definitely like concrete and a lot of structural work. Phase two will be a little more about Earth moving and then getting a bunch of different artists on board to do sculptural pieces for the landscape."

Phase three will actually then incorporate a nearby alleyway to truly incorporate the skate park into the neighborhood.

"I think the number one goal is now there is some public space," Reichert said. "It's defined, its intentional. It's sort of dramatic. It has good design but it has a function. Kids from the neighborhood can use it but also it is a destination place for people. For us, that also means that there is a sense of pride and place within the neighborhood."

If you build it, they will come

Even though the park is only one-third of the way complete, there is no way to keep the enthusiastic skating community from embracing the park and making it a social gathering point.

"Just the other day, there were 30 guys here from outside of the city," Reichert said. "They showed up and used the barbeque (grill) for the first time. They had this huge Sunday grill-out and skate. They still left room from the neighborhood kids to test out their timid skills."

Twenty-one year old Scott Smith came down from Waterford to skate at the park thanks to the word spreading on Facebook and Twitter.

"It was rumored around the skateboard community," Smith said. "I heard a couple people talking about a free public park near Hamtramck. I found the Power House Productions website. I checked it out and finally found where it was at."

On top of bringing in skateboarders from all over the Metro Detroit area, people were taking notice that it is not your average skate park and excited to come back on a regular basis to see how it keeps improving.

"This park sort of stood out," Smith said. "They built stuff around trees, it's free. The people who built this place build skate parks. It's skateboarder built. They know what's good and what works. They're profession is construction too so I think that has a lot to do with it."

Yet another factor that has contributed to the draw at the park has been the fact that the skateboarders feel like they are helping make an impact on the local community just by using the park.

For Hutchings, being able to see the impact of something as simple as a skate park is the reason why he plans to keep returning.

"You can already see that there are already a few kids from the neighborhoods that are skating," Hutchings said. "It's already serving its purpose. It's getting out of doing some bad stuff possibly. I think that is mainly what it is for. It's cool because we can all come and skate it and also new kids can come and get into skating. New kids can get into better stuff."

New life to the neighborhood

Not only is the skate park bringing in enthusiasts from outside Detroit into the area, but it is a prime way for the children of the neighborhood to learn a new skill and meet with the enthusiastic skaters the come by day after day.

Emari Barnes is a 12-year-old from the neighborhood that has found a whole new activity to do in his spare time thanks to the Ride It Sculpture Park. Not even knowing how to skateboard when he first visited the park, he quickly got roped in thanks to some of the more skilled individuals at the park.

"When I came here, everyone was trying to be all nice and teach me how to skate and stuff," Barnes said. "Now I know how to skate."

And what part of the park is the most fun?

"Everything is fun to me," Barnes said.

But Barnes would not have been able to learn to skateboard unless a national organization called Boards for Bros decided to help the Ride It Sculpture Park project by giving out skateboards to neighborhood kids that could not afford their own.

"(Boards for Bros) brought in 60 skateboards and distributed them to neighborhood kids," Reichert said. "There is definitely a demand for more because kids are knocking on our door everyday. It is a great problem to have."

While Reichert works with others to help get some more boards built or brought in, Barnes is not the only child in the neighborhood who is catching on to skateboarding from the park.

Twelve-year-old Terrell Moore and 11-year old Tyre Jackson both live across the street from the park and watched the ramps go up from his house.

"Saw them building it," Jackson said. "I just came over here and saw what they were doing, and they were skate boarding"

Jackson couldn't believe that the vacant lot of tall grass and litter could ever be turned into something fun.

"It's amazing," he added.

As the kids show up, the more seasoned skaters don't mind helping out the kids with the basics, even if it just means helping them stay on the board as they go up a ramp.

"Most of them are learning to skateboard for the first time," Reichert said. "It's amazing how quickly they've picked up the basic skills."

Now, the sound of skateboard wheels can be heard throughout the neighborhood and is like music to Reichert's ears. She already feels the sense of accomplishment even though the project still has a long way to go.

"Now we see the neighbors we've known for the seven years we've been living here, the kids rolling down the street to go get groceries from the corner store and then back," Reichert said. "That's one of my favorite things."