by Kristy Campbell (Saving the World One Teen at a Time on Mommy Tracked)
I was fortunate to see a Tony Hawk skate because his new RIDE video game is being released this November and my son and I were invited to his corporate offices to demo the game and give our feedback. (So no one is thinking that I’m some impossibly uber-hip tween mom, when I first got the email, I wondered why Tony Robbins was doing a video game. I knew the email said “Hawk” but I visualized “Robbins.” A video game about motivational speaking didn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me, let alone my 9-year old son.)
When I yelled to my son in the other room: “Hey, Mike, have you ever heard of some guy named Tony Hawk?” he came flying into my office to announce that Tony Hawk is only the most awesome skateboarder on the planet.
“Why, Mom?” His out-of-breath excitement at my question was palpable, and so I began the journey into the world of skateboarding.
First lesson: Tony Hawk is not only the most awesome skateboarder on the planet, but he is also one of the most philanthropic. He has a non-profit foundation with a mission to build skateparks in low-income neighborhoods in order to give disadvantaged kids a place to skate, as well as to help them develop self-esteem with each new trick they learn. To date, he has given over $2, 300,000 to non-profit groups and has helped to build over 390 skateparks throughout the US.
Second lesson: Tony Hawk is no slacker. I suppose I’ve always dismissed skateboarding because the kids always look so…I don’t know…slacking. It seems like they wouldn’t get out of bed if the law didn’t require them to be at school a couple of days a week. However, Hawk has kept himself busy and managed to build a small empire. He has his own line of clothing, skateboards, footwear, bedding, bikes, video games, and even vitamins.
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Kristy Campbell draws from her perspective raising 5 children to write about the tween–teen years in Saving the World One Teen at a Time. She is a writer and actress and has taped an appearance on Dr. Phil to talk about teen stress, authored a boys-only cookbook in production, and contributes to a tween mom panel through the Intelligence Group. She blogs at capeatcleaners.blogspot.com and her "Sip, Whine, and Ciao" blog launches next month. She lives in California with husband #2 and a houseful of children ranging in age from 1-17 years.
