About Us

1 Square Foot is a fundraising initiative organized by the Ottawa Skateboard Community Association (OSCA) to raise money for the expansion of the McNabb skate park.

OSCA and the McNabb Skate Park

The Ottawa Skateboard Community Association (OSCA) is a non-profit organization that was founded to lobby the City of Ottawa to build more skateboard parks that are efficiently and effectively designed.

Through hard work, community support, and an organized plan, OSCA had our first success this past year, securing funding for a permanent, fully customized concrete skateboard park in the McNabb Park at the corner of Gladstone and Bronson.

The City of Ottawa has allocated approximately 13,000 square feet of space for the skateboard park and $300,000 to build and design the skateboard park. Given the restricted budget, the skate park will not be able to fully utilize the space we have been allocated and the park will end up at around 7,000 square feet. Our goal is to collect $100,000 through our program called “1 square foot” to ensure that the space is fully utilized. We think every great challenge can be accomplished by tackling the issue in small pieces or, in our case, square feet. Every $40 donation gives us one more square foot of skate park, hence the name of our program 1 square foot.

Skateboarding is one of the fastest growing recreational activities among today’s youth. It is considered a healthy activity that individuals can enjoy regardless of socio- demographic and economic status. The health and social benefits associated with regular participation in sports and physical activities are well recognized. Nevertheless, activity studies consistently report that Canadians increasingly select sedentary leisure- time activities. Skateboard parks represent one outlet among many offered by community recreation centres that can address the growing problem of youth inactivity.

We have a one-time opportunity to help expand Ottawa’s only downtown skateboard facility and ensure that the space offered to us will be fully used and an optimal facility for skateboarding for our youth.