HU Skate Club Meet Up (Fall 2025)

On Friday, November 7th, we teamed up with Howard University’s Skate Club to host an event at Banneker Skatepark in Washington, D.C. to enjoy a night of skateboarding, artwork, and community. The members of the club and other attendees of this event helped decorate twenty two post cards to accompany the skateboards and other skate supplies that we will be donating in our upcoming annual skate drive to Tumshangilieni Mtoto, a school and orphanage in Kenya. The school also happens to be home to the only skate park in the country. We hope that the artwork and kind messages written on these postcards will encourage the children to continue in both their skate journeys and in their studies, and are deeply grateful for HU Skate Club for partnering with us in our mission in empowering the youth across the world.

Being the first HBCU skate club in the country, and having only been founded in 2021, HU Skate Club is now one of the largest and most active skate clubs in the Washington DC area, and keen on growing and building community through events and collaborations with other clubs and organizations. We plan to help the skate club create a pen pal program with children from the orphanage in the new year, with the goal of growing and strengthening the global skateboarding community through cultural exchange. Needless to say, its members showed out, and the skatepark was filled with skaters of all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. Students from other universities as well as skateboarders from the neighborhood also came out to support and enjoy the fun.

Aside from the skateboarding and postcard watercolor session, we also held a small raffle of SHAPE gear for everybody that was present, and gave away a t-shirt, hat, and skate deck to three individuals, along with many, many SHAPE stickers. All in all, the event lasted a little over three hours, and although temperatures were low, spirits were high.

Shape plans to partner with HU Skate Club again in the new year, and is looking for ways to collaborate with other clubs in the local scene to continue building community and spreading the movement.

Thank you to everybody who came out!

Written by Max Brothers, Communications Officer, SHAPE Skate Foundation

Photography by Josiah Smith