Swope Park skating event focuses on community, combatting gun violence [Video]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Every Tuesday at the Bandstand in Swope Park, you can find dozens skating around the pavilion. Organizer Dimitri Milligan says after they started the event back up after the pandemic, they focused on the kids in the community.

“It’s growing,” said Milligan. “It’s almost like the children double every week.”

Their main focus is on bringing the community and kids together, but they also have two other goals.

“It’s about putting down the guns and putting on the skates,” said Milligan. “It’s also a no-child-without-skates initiative because a lot of the kids didn’t have skates. We started purchasing skates for the children.”

On Tuesday, Lorenzo Frazier and his sister got their pairs of skates.

“I’m getting some new skates,” said Frazier. “It feels good. I like the designs. They have all different kinds of shapes. I like the shapes and the colors.”

Last year, organizers …