A team of 12 volunteers — nine of them skaters — were building a retaining wall on the parking lot side of the park where the ground has eroded over the years, and adding a staircase up to the top deck.

Skater Rick Dohurrsstt said many hands made light work.

Some traveled from Plattsburgh and Elizabethtown to help out.

“We thought it was going to take longer, but a lot of people showed up,” Dohurrsstt said. “It only took like four hours.”

Volunteers worked on the Saranac Lake SkatePark on Saturday. Pictured are Kaleb McCasland, Will Levasseur, Evan Davis, Peggy Wiltberger, John Skerp, Jeremy McCasland, Mary Levasseur, Lindy Ellis and Rich Shapiro. (Photo provided)

“Yeah, it was pretty easy,” skater Jake “Shark Boy” Roberts chimed in.

“You showed up for the last five minutes,” Dohurrsstt said with a laugh. “He showed up for the pictures.”

The work was organized by village Trustee Rich Shapiro and Franklin County legislator Lindy Ellis.

They said skating is a physical and constructive activity.

“People have so much fun,” Ellis said.

Rick Dohurrsstt jumps a skate board at the Saranac Lake SkatePark. In the foreground is a staircase and retaining wall he helped build on Saturday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

“(The SkatePark is) used almost constantly,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro and Ellis see building skateboard skills as building life skills, too.

“It’s challenging. They set goals and try to meet it,” Shapiro said. “It’s amazing when you see somebody try to get a trick 100 times before they finally get it. They just keep after it.”

They like how the older skaters will clap their boards on the pavement to show appreciation for the younger skaters when they land a new trick. They like how the small community is really tight and helps each other out in and outside of the park. They like how creative the skaters get, finding new, unexpected ways to skate features in the park.

The funding all came from the SkatePark committee.

Shapiro said Sturdy Supply and Rental lent the volunteers power tools, including a 16-inch circular saw, which he said was helpful for cutting the 6-by-6-inch logs.

Volunteers Jeremy and Ashleigh McCasland bought pizza and ice cream for everyone.

“It made the (volunteers) feel special,” Ellis said.

The SkatePark committee is planning a Skate Jam on Aug. 1 at 1 p.m. to celebrate its sixth birthday, which is in two weeks.

The next project for Shapiro and Ellis to complete is to keep the squirrel which has been making a mess of the park out of the garbage cans.

“I was picking up the other morning and I go over to the trash can,” Ellis said. “I take off the top … and this big, fat gray squirrel comes jumping out at me.”

Ellis and Shapiro are proud of the SkatePark, which they believe is the nicest in the North Country.

On Sunday, Dez Dufrene said he traveled from Lake George to skate here because he had heard good things about the park. He said it flows well, with features on all sides.

Ellis said last week she talked with a skater from Rochester who wanted to move to Saranac Lake because the park was so nice.