About
Action Sports Kids Foundation Skateboarding & Youth Programs centers on skateboarding and related youth activities. The program includes skateboarding, skate tours to different skate parks in Los Angeles County or Orange County, community events, and community service projects. It also hosts skateboarding competitions, runs a monthly skate park clean-up program, and provides skateboarding lessons to autistic youth.
• Ages: 3–18 years old
The program is run by the Action Sports Kids Foundation, a non-profit in Long Beach, California dedicated to providing youth an alternative to the streets and gangs through sports, education and community involvement. It created the Long Beach Skate Park Program, which is considered one of the most successful in the country and has been used as a model across the United States by the Tony Hawk Foundation. The organization has a skate team of more than 175 members, ages 3–25, of different genders and diverse ethnicities, and provides food, clothing, equipment, over 100 pairs of shoes for low-income youth, and food for over 1000 low-income youth.
Founder and Executive Director Mike Donelon first recognized a need for skate parks in Long Beach in 1996 while serving as a City Councilman, and has been involved in opening nine skate parks in Long Beach. Within three years after the opening of the Michael K. Green skate park in 2003, crime incidents dropped, and in 2011 he founded the Action Sports Kids Foundation. The organization provides scholarships to member youth attending trade school or college and runs an intern program to teach valuable skills, an Ambassador Program recognizing team members for community involvement, and mentoring on the importance of education and staying in school.
The program uses skateboarding as an entry point to access at-risk youth and meets kids at the skate park, where team members get involved in community events, community service projects, and civic engagement. Activities include co-sponsoring the Long Beach Ronald McDonald House Car and Motorcycle Show with a skate and BMX demo, co-sponsoring Books and Buckets (a basketball and education program), and four years of hosting the Autism in Long Beach Bully Free Zone Family Picnic. The organization has volunteered with the A.skate Foundation to give skateboarding lessons to autistic youth, run the Mental Wellness 4 on 4 Basketball Tournament with EM3 (Educated Men with Meaningful Messages) BHC and Good Eats Safe Streets, and provided skate and safety lessons to over 100 youth 11 and under while donating safety helmets to each child.
Action Sports Kids Foundation has hosted the Sk8 LBCity Sk8 Contest with the CSULB Communications Department, benefiting the CSULB baseball team and serving as a semester project for the communication department. It has sponsored four kids for the Albert Castro Memorial Scholarship at Woodward West, an action sports camp, for one week, and has hosted skateboarding competitions, including four in memory of kids lost through street accidents and gun violence. The organization also ran an essay contest at Jefferson Middle School on what the city can do to improve a neighborhood and why safety equipment should be worn when riding bikes and skateboards, and it provides community service hours for students.
Community events have included hosting 14 kids at the Long Beach Grand Prix, 7 kids at Formula Drift, and hosting kids at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Civic engagement activities include attending community planning meetings on park master plans, co-sponsoring the Tony Hawk Foundation Skate Park Development Summit with The California Endowment, riding in the MLK Peace and Unity parade with Grand Marshall Anitra Dempsey, and winning a video contest sponsored by the Long Beach Convention Center and Visitors Bureau about why Long Beach is a great place, with the video entirely filmed and edited by youth. The organization participated in a video with the Tony Hawk Foundation on the benefits of skate parks to inner-city kids for CCTV-America, which aired nationwide on PBS KCET-TV’s Full Frame segment.
The Long Beach Skate Park Program has been recognized by Long Beach Unified School District and Long Beach Police Department for a 100% success rate in keeping team members off the streets, out of gangs, and in school. The program is followed on social media by youth across the USA and 15 different countries, and has ASK Team representatives throughout California and in Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Mexico City, and London who spread a positive message of community involvement through skateboarding. The organization has high levels of support from the Long Beach community and skaters, with endorsements from the Office of the Mayor, Long Beach City Council, Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine, Long Beach Parks and Recreation Commission, Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, Long Beach Police Department, Port of Long Beach, and the Tony Hawk Foundation. The Action Sports Kids Foundation was named a 2026 California Nonprofit of the Year.
Last updated July 18, 2026.
• Ages: 3–18 years old
The program is run by the Action Sports Kids Foundation, a non-profit in Long Beach, California dedicated to providing youth an alternative to the streets and gangs through sports, education and community involvement. It created the Long Beach Skate Park Program, which is considered one of the most successful in the country and has been used as a model across the United States by the Tony Hawk Foundation. The organization has a skate team of more than 175 members, ages 3–25, of different genders and diverse ethnicities, and provides food, clothing, equipment, over 100 pairs of shoes for low-income youth, and food for over 1000 low-income youth.
Founder and Executive Director Mike Donelon first recognized a need for skate parks in Long Beach in 1996 while serving as a City Councilman, and has been involved in opening nine skate parks in Long Beach. Within three years after the opening of the Michael K. Green skate park in 2003, crime incidents dropped, and in 2011 he founded the Action Sports Kids Foundation. The organization provides scholarships to member youth attending trade school or college and runs an intern program to teach valuable skills, an Ambassador Program recognizing team members for community involvement, and mentoring on the importance of education and staying in school.
The program uses skateboarding as an entry point to access at-risk youth and meets kids at the skate park, where team members get involved in community events, community service projects, and civic engagement. Activities include co-sponsoring the Long Beach Ronald McDonald House Car and Motorcycle Show with a skate and BMX demo, co-sponsoring Books and Buckets (a basketball and education program), and four years of hosting the Autism in Long Beach Bully Free Zone Family Picnic. The organization has volunteered with the A.skate Foundation to give skateboarding lessons to autistic youth, run the Mental Wellness 4 on 4 Basketball Tournament with EM3 (Educated Men with Meaningful Messages) BHC and Good Eats Safe Streets, and provided skate and safety lessons to over 100 youth 11 and under while donating safety helmets to each child.
Action Sports Kids Foundation has hosted the Sk8 LBCity Sk8 Contest with the CSULB Communications Department, benefiting the CSULB baseball team and serving as a semester project for the communication department. It has sponsored four kids for the Albert Castro Memorial Scholarship at Woodward West, an action sports camp, for one week, and has hosted skateboarding competitions, including four in memory of kids lost through street accidents and gun violence. The organization also ran an essay contest at Jefferson Middle School on what the city can do to improve a neighborhood and why safety equipment should be worn when riding bikes and skateboards, and it provides community service hours for students.
Community events have included hosting 14 kids at the Long Beach Grand Prix, 7 kids at Formula Drift, and hosting kids at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Civic engagement activities include attending community planning meetings on park master plans, co-sponsoring the Tony Hawk Foundation Skate Park Development Summit with The California Endowment, riding in the MLK Peace and Unity parade with Grand Marshall Anitra Dempsey, and winning a video contest sponsored by the Long Beach Convention Center and Visitors Bureau about why Long Beach is a great place, with the video entirely filmed and edited by youth. The organization participated in a video with the Tony Hawk Foundation on the benefits of skate parks to inner-city kids for CCTV-America, which aired nationwide on PBS KCET-TV’s Full Frame segment.
The Long Beach Skate Park Program has been recognized by Long Beach Unified School District and Long Beach Police Department for a 100% success rate in keeping team members off the streets, out of gangs, and in school. The program is followed on social media by youth across the USA and 15 different countries, and has ASK Team representatives throughout California and in Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Mexico City, and London who spread a positive message of community involvement through skateboarding. The organization has high levels of support from the Long Beach community and skaters, with endorsements from the Office of the Mayor, Long Beach City Council, Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine, Long Beach Parks and Recreation Commission, Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, Long Beach Police Department, Port of Long Beach, and the Tony Hawk Foundation. The Action Sports Kids Foundation was named a 2026 California Nonprofit of the Year.
Last updated July 18, 2026.
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