Skateboarders, move aside — the Auburn-Opelika Skate Park will belong to toy cars tomorrow morning as families bring their remote control cars to the park for an obstacle course challenge.
The Auburn-Opelika Skate Park will be host to the RC Car Skate Park Takeover tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 28 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m., the park's first City-organized event since opening in January 2020.
"We're kind of just doing trial and error to see what works," said Gabby Filgo, community and special programs administrator for Auburn Parks and Recreation. "The plan is to keep the skate park as is, but it will have an obstacle course set up also so kids or adults can enjoy the skate park and they can also try their hand at getting the cars through the course."
Parks and Recreation assembled its own custom course for the takeover, with participants to be tasked with weaving around cones and driving through tunnels among other obstacles, Filgo said.
Registration for the takeover is free, but participants are asked to come with their own remote control cars or trucks but staff will have batteries available in case a car runs out of power.
"It is recommended that they have the ability to flip over without breaking — a lot of RC cars are made that way now," Filgo said. "The batteries on them really only last for 20-30 minutes ... [so] I'll have some extra batteries there for people."
The inspiration for the takeover came from an Auburn parent who emailed Parks and Recreation director Rebecca Richardson seeking an outlet for families to get outdoors, Filgo said.
"After I researched another city that had done it and got some information from them, I decided it was something that we could do," Filgo said.
Filgo said there won't be any prizes for competitively driving the cars since people will be bringing different types of cars, but there will be door prizes available for those who register early.
"It's just two hours to have fun and see what kind of tricks you can do in a skate park," she said. "We'll have Kona Ice available for purchase ... [and give away] some gift cards to local businesses."
The skate park will be closed off to inline skaters, bikers and skateboarders for safety reasons until the event ends at noon.
The RC Skate Park Takeover is the latest in the department's returned lineup of events this year. City Market will see its final day tomorrow morning and the City's second Harvest Market is coming up during the fall. Filgo said she hopes the takeover will be a way for families to start their weekend and could lead to more events at the skate park in the future.
"People have definitely enjoyed the opportunity to come out and enjoy our parks, the outside and take part in some sort of activity," she said. "If this is successful we might do it again; I think skateboarding is something a lot of us in our department don't know a lot about so it would be something we would have to research."
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Tim Nail, senior in journalism, is the community editor of The Auburn Plainsman.
