Omaha skate school celebrates graduation day

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - It’s graduation day for students a part of Rabble Mill’s first Omaha skate school! Today 25 students graduating from the program received free helmets and skateboards.

Rabble Mill is a nonprofit that started in Lincoln and six years ago they started teaching kids to skate during an after-school program.

For the first time in its history, the program has extended to Omaha with its community partners Beyond School Bells, Collective for Youth, Civic Nebraska, and Precision Skateshop.

This year, 36 students from selected Omaha Public Schools were chosen to participate. The goal is to teach them self-expression through skateboarding, music, and art and have them apply those skills throughout their lives.

“I’ve made lifelong friends through skateboarding and it taught me a lot in terms of self confidences, consistency, style, and aesthetic, and there’s just so many soft skills and life lessons that you can learn through something as simple as skateboarding,” Drew Newlin, Project Manager and Skateboarding Instructor for Rabble Mill said.

The kids graduating from the program today couldn’t keep the smiles off of their faces as they decorated their new boards and reflected on their time in the program.

“This program was very fun because before I joined, I really didn’t know how to skate but then I knew how to after doing this,” said nine-year-old A’anyah Turner-Carter, a student at Lothrop Elementary said.

The hope is to expand the program and raise enough money to build an indoor skatepark for kids in Omaha so they can use it year-round.

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