PositiveView: Roller Skating is Back
By Tasha Wilson
Roller skating is back, and it is right on time! Why? Well, because face it Positive Peeps, 2020 WAS A LOT!
At the forefront is Covid-19. This disease has affected an unfathomable number of human beings globally, and here within Stanislaus County, many have been hit hard. During 2020, there were so many political disagreements and civil unrest. I sometimes found myself wondering how the world was ever going to make it to 2021. However, thankfully, there is an upside to every down. We see sunshine after every storm, faces smile soon after tears dry, and eventually, every broken heart heals! 2020 just made us stronger!
We must also remember that 2020 was not all bad. It gave us the chance to focus on our family. Plus, I am happy to share that skating has “rolled” over, (pun intended), from the tail end of 2020. With it, brought an amazingly talented, jam skater who goes by the name of Brian Cromwell. Brian is well-known in the roller-skating community and his love of skating reaches way back to the Roller King days of his childhood.
The fire Brian has for roller skating has never burned out and for that reason, he came up with an idea to gather a bunch of roller skaters together, once a week, for an outdoor skate night. All of his roller-skating events are free! On some nights, there is a deejay, and when the deejay cannot attend, Brian wears the deejay hat as well. His skate group is called “Modesto Skates” and during the beginning of the pandemic, (as you can see from the photo), the group was fairly small. Today, there are more than eleven hundred online members!
Roller skating is just fun! It allows everyone to come together and enjoy the outdoors and fresh air while spending time with friends and family, (even during California’s Shelter-In-Place order)!
Brian Cromwell earned many medals during the years he was a roller-skater at Modesto’s beloved Roller King. Years later, the rink has come and gone, but the love Brian has for roller skating has never wavered. Roller-skating is in his bones and he plans to continue growing his skate group. Soon, it will be one of the largest skate groups in the state of California!
If you would like further information, please send a join request to the “Modesto Skate” Facebook page: https://www.facebook.
