Tucked away in a park in Watts, CA, on a brisk Sunday morning, children are laughing and skateboarding at their community skate park in a safe environment due in part to a partnership between the Unite LA Foundation and local law enforcement agencies because ensuring kids have safe access to skate parks is important to her.
“I would like to take a moment to thank Kind Home Lending, Karma Griptape, Blood In Blood Out Skateboards, Heady Shake Bearings, Raskullz Helmets, Krash Helmets, Asian Industry B2B, Justice For Murdered Children, DJ Dex Scribbles, and his Assistant DJ Mama Liz, Kartoon, Lawanda Hawkins, Juan Guzman, Dee Dee, LAPD SLO Yanez and LAPD Watts Division for helping me and the Unite LA Foundation host the most amazing United We SK8 2021 Learn to Skate and Community Picnic event on Watts CA Serenity Park and Monitor Ave Skate Park,” said Isabella Blue. “I would also like to thank my Dad, Adam who is “Never Out of the Fight” to protect children and keep them safe.”
Children’s safety, especially in the skate parks are important to Isabella.
“If we abolish policemen who is going to protect children like me?” asked Isabella Blue, 7, a sponsored skateboarder who has her eyes on the 2028 Olympics, as a member of the women’s skateboarding team.
Watts Serenity Park is one of the many locations Unite LA Foundation hosts community skateboarding events with the support of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Senior Lead Officer Robert Yanez has been in the Southwest Division since 1996, and began his assignment in Watts in 2005.
“We have worked really hard to improve the area, and during my time here, I have seen the area cleaned up, and now all of that hard work appears to be going in the wrong direction,” said Yanez.
He explained that the skateboarding events are ways for officers to interact with the community, and provide a safe space to meet the residents.
“This isn’t about being “security”, it’s about being in tuned with the residents,” said Yanez.
As the children skateboarded, they were treated to the sounds of a DJ Dax, 9, who was a fan of Unite LA, and was asked to perform at all of their events.
“Dax watched Transylvania 3, which had a DJ battle scene and he got hooked,” said his father George Dang. “Dax taught himself watching YouTube and created the group Junk Scribbles, where his siblings will eventually join him, if they want.”
“We are proud of Dax who has only been doing this one year, but has performed at a 5k walk in Whittier, and through word of mouth, has worked many events on a volunteer basis,” said Dang. “It’s a great way for him to give back to the community.”
Like children around the nation, in March 2020, Isabella found herself on lockdown because of COVID-19. As a then six-year-old competitive skateboarder, she found skateparks closed and skateboard competitions canceled Isabella and her mother Jennifer began to look for opportunities to utilize the downtime to help those impacted by Covid-19.
In June 2020, Isabella and Jennifer began a collaboration with Internationally recognized Philanthropist and Skateboarding Executive Micaela Ramirez and the Poseiden Foundation to launch the “United We Sk8” campaign one of the most visionary philanthropic campaigns in action sports, focused on providing 100,000 skateboards to Homeless, Foster, and High-Risk Children.
Since inception, United We Sk8 has distributed close to 400 desks through the Poseiden Foundation, thanks to donations.
In early 2021, Isabella and Jennifer created the Unite LA Foundation, on the idea if they were able to bring people together as discuss topics of mutual agreement then perhaps a level of trust could be achieved to find solutions to areas of disagreement.
At many of her events you can find her showing attendees how to use the board. Most notably, Sheriff Alex Villanueva hopped on a board and supported Ladies Day at the Berrics which was hosted by Poseiden and Isabella .
Isabella made a direct plea to Sheriff Villanueva to help make Venice Beach safe again so she could use the skatepark, and after the cleanup, she looks forward to returning.
Isabella trains and hosts events throughout Los Angeles County and counts on support from law enforcement agencies to keep the kids safe.
Isabella has resumed her training to lead the women’s Olympic Skateboarding team to Gold at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, but will continue her philanthropic work to Unite LA.
Skateboarding made its debut appearance at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. It has also been provisionally approved by the IOC for inclusion at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
World Skate currently sanctions Olympic skateboarding.
United LA will host #VAXXnSKATE at the Hansem Dam on Nov. 21.
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible!” said Isabella in a tweet announcing the event.
