Eureka Springs is the home of many well-kept but delightful secrets. One that comes to mind is the fact we are home to a world-class skateboard park in Harmon Park, designed by internationally prominent skateboard facility designers and builders Dreamworks, who have built skate parks all around the world.

In January, 2006, Kyle Egan, 29, was airlifted to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville with a fractured skull following a skateboard accident in Harmon Park.

Egan was not wearing a helmet.

The risk involved

Skateboarding is an activity in which you move quickly over hard surfaces. It can lead to injuries that range from minor cuts and bruises to catastrophic brain injury.

According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, "Each year in the United States, skateboarding injuries cause about 50,000 visits to emergency departments and 1,500 children and adolescents to be hospitalized."

Most hospitalizations involve head injury, they say, and even injuries that heal quickly can cause pain and anxiety, cost time and money and may lead to disabilities.

Life's a risky business

This is not an argument against skateboarding, far from it. All life contains risk. Getting out of bed in the morning is a risk. When you engage in any sport, you take a chance. That doesn't mean we should ban basketball or ice hockey or roller derby.

What it does mean is you should wear appropriate safety gear when you play, and you should insist children do the same.

Everybody wants to be cool. I assume that's some biological imperative without which the species would perish. And for many, helmets just aren't that cool.

I will leave that broader argument aside, especially among consenting adults, pointing out only that children look to adults as their role models in every facet of life, including this one.

Lessening the risk

Local Art Car maven, mom and skateboard enthusiast Regina Smith is coordinating an effort with Parks & Rec Director Bruce Levine to make skateboarding in our town just a little safer. She is gathering helmets, to be put at the disposal of those using the Harmon Park Skate Park.

There's no catch. They will be at the park, ready for use. They will be at the disposal of park users on the honor system, meaning, use it but don't steal it.

Again, from the American Academy or Orthopedic Surgeons: "To protect your head from injury, always wear a properly fitting helmet. This is true no matter what your age, level of experience or location where you are skateboarding. Get a quality bicycle or multi-sport helmet. It should meet or exceed safety standards of the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) or Snell Memorial Foundation."

Worth a little risk

I grew up at the wrong place and time -- too early, and too far from California, where skateboarding began in imitation of surfing, using roller skate wheels and boards to simulate the wave crashers at the local beaches, as those who've seen "Dogtown and Z-Boys" already know -- but I have always admired it and its wild anti-gravity proponents.

So instead of the anti-skateboarding politics that often play out in cities where the kids seek good spots to practice -- handrails, empty swimming pools (again, see "Dogtown and Z Boys"), and of course streets temporarily unoccupied by moving automobiles -- I recommend we give thanks at our good fortune in having an asset like the Harmon Park Skate Park in our city of 2,300, and tell our kids, when they go to Harmon Park to practice, to alleviate our worst concerns by using the helmets that will be there, free, waiting to be used.

Don Lee