Country singer Kip Moore helps build skate parks for kids

COUNTRY SINGER KIP Moore's style is more surfboards and skateboards than cowboy boots, so when he wanted to help children from low-income areas, he found inspiration in his own passions.
Last month in Annapolis, Maryland, Moore opened the first of four skate parks he is helping to fund with the Comeback Kid Skatepark Project, an initiative of his donor-advised charitable fund, Kip's Kids Fund. Another park opened in San Marcos, Texas, and two more will be opened in Nashville, Tennessee, and Boston.
Moore, along with the city of Annapolis and local community donors, helped refurbish a skate park that had fallen into disrepair by resurfacing the pavement and adding ramps, rails, corner pockets and flip banks. Moore said he wanted to give kids a safe place to practice and create bonds with other skaters.
"Skating is such a brotherhood community," the 35-year-old singer-songwriter said during his first look at the new park in Annapolis. "In a lot of these areas, these kids are dealing with all kinds of different problems. This is a safe place for them to go. And it's a place where they can be turned on to a new sport that might give them some hope, something to be proud of. I am in a position now to make some things happen and that's what I want to do in these communities."
Moore named the project after the song Comeback Kid on his new album, Wild Ones, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart last month.
"I see it hopefully being a nationwide thing," Moore said of his charitable fund. "Hopefully we can expand this thing and turn it into a million different projects, not just skating, but all kinds of things in the inner cities." AP