It’s endearing when celebrities use their platform for a noble cause. This is why Jeff Ament, the co-founder and bassist of the grunge rock band, Pearl Jam, is winning the hearts of the Skateboarding community. In collaboration with Nike N7 and Standing Rock Tribal Community, Ament has brought a skate park and brand-new basketball courts to the North Dakota community of Fort Yates.

The skate park was built by Jeff Ament’s non-profit Montana Pool Service. For the past 20 years, the American musician has been building skating parks all over Montana, from the proceeds he receives from his tours and concerts. This is another addition to his mammoth effort to serve the youth of his home state, a decision that has been applauded by the Fort Yates community.

Skateboarding gets a new hero in Jeff Ament

The official Instagram page of Pearl Jam announced the news a couple of days ago. The caption to the post read, “Yesterday, we opened a new skatepark on Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. Thx to the 600+ kids and families who came out to make it their own.” Jeff Ament built the skate park worth $250,000 largely from his own funds, with Nike N7 contributing to the basketball courts built alongside the skating rink.

Nike N7 is a branch of Nike that produces Indigenous-inspired products and aims to promote Indigenous youth in sports. More than 600 people attended the opening of the park, most of them were children. Volunteers handed out several goodies, such as t-shirts and basketballs, to the children in attendance. The non-profit organization Oúŋ was also associated with Nike N7 and Montana Pool Service during the project. The women-led Indigenous nonprofit organization centered in Standing Rock acted as a liaison between the groups.

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According to KFYR TV, Ament revealed his inspiration behind building the park, and said, “We have really been putting our focus to the more isolated and rural areas. And as you know, the reservations, they put the native folks 150 years ago into the most isolated areas, and so we ended up, a lot of times, on reservations.” While the community had a skate park, it was in dire condition, and so was the basketball court. Hence, the children of Fort Yates were extremely joyous to have received this gift. Jeff Ament, however, is not new to this practice.

An angel without wings

Around a decade ago, Ament started building skating parks all over his home state. Around 8 years ago, he built one in the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning which he funded with the proceeds he got from touring. Now, this park in Fort Yates marks the 31st park that has been built by the Pearl Jam bassist.  The skate park built at Standing Rock was in the works for a year and a half.

Ament revealed that when the announcement was made, the entire community was excited. His organization scheduled a Zoom call with the stakeholders and members of the community, and he was happy to discover that a skating community was waiting for the park to open. What Ament has done will suddenly be a positive influence in the lives of the people of Fort Yates, especially the young ones.

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