A different fundraising effort is happening at Maine’s largest indoor skatepark, highlighting the importance of skateboarding culture and adventure sports for youth.

The first of its kind Youth Voices Film Festival will showcase skateboarding culture inside and outside of Maine at the Midcoast Youth Center and Skatepark at 6 p.m. June 4. The evening will include over 60 minutes of curated films and will feature filmmakers from Texas, Tennessee and Maine. Tickets for the film festival cost $25–$75, with a raffle and a competition for best skateboard tricks.

Art house skateboarding film, “A Way Out” directed by Michael Babbitt, will feature the skateboarding scene in Portland. Midcoast Youth Center will also screen a short documentary, “Youth Matter!,” during the Youth Voices Film Festival.

“Youth Matter!” will be a promotion for the Midcoast Youth Center, with a focus on how healthy risk-taking and physical activity has on the mental health of youth. It will also showcase the role the Midcoast Youth Center’s skatepark has with youth in the Midcoast community, said Andrew Foster, Midcoast Youth Center skatepark manager.

Midcoast-based production company Tailwind Media produced the Midcoast Youth Center’s short documentary, which helped in capturing the skate culture of the Midcoast as well as the culture around Midcoast Youth Center.

The Youth Voices Film Festival adds more legitimacy to the Maine skateboarding scene on a larger stage and shows the greater Maine community what skateboarding and adventure sports mean to the youth, said Tobias Parkhurst, chairperson of the Maine Skateboard Association. The film festival offers an opportunity to show kids they matter and that the activities they participate in receive equal respect alongside traditional activities like football, baseball or basketball.

“If we say we want kids to be engaged with athletic activities, then let’s support the ones they want to do,” Parkhurst said.

It’s well documented that nearly 35% of Maine youth (ages 3-17) have one or more diagnosed mental, emotional or behavioral health condition, said Shannon Parker, Maine author and youth advocate. Her son appears in the Midcoast Youth Center’s short documentary.

Maine kids navigate anxiety, depression and social isolation at a profoundly higher rate than anywhere in our entire nation, Parker said. As adults, physical activity has a positive impact on mental health, and seeking movement, respite in nature and social time with friends are a few ways to be engaged in life.

“When I started skateboarding, there wasn’t any opportunity for us to participate in our chosen sport in any way that you would consider legitimate,” Parkhurst said.

Parkhurst wants the youth to feel heard, seen and valued, and said the most important thing adults can do is care about what the youth are into and genuinely want to support them.

“We were trying to think of ways to not only engage the community in what the youth are interested in but also engage the youth at the same time to get everybody on board,” Foster said.

Foster has been part of the skateboard culture in Maine for the past 26 years and has seen the skateboarding scene shift from something that was just for outcasts into a more recognized professional sport.

Over the winter, Midcoast Youth Center pitched the Maine Outdoor Film Festival the idea of a Youth Voices Film Festival with a skateboard-centric theme, and MOFF ultimately partnered with the youth center for the event.

“There’s power in the adage ‘seeing is believing,’ and I hope Maine will see what a powerhouse of impact it has in the Midcoast Youth Center and skatepark,” Parker said.

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