Published: July 16, 2008 10:48 pm            

Friends & Neighbors: Loretta Scriven

Loretta Scriven looks like the most atypical owner of a skate shop you’ll ever see.

Blond, soft-spoken and prim with nary a tattoo in sight, one might think Scriven would feel more comfortable in a library. She doesn’t even know how to ride a skateboard.

But make no mistake, skateboarding is this woman’s life.

Scriven was born in Cleveland, Tenn., while her father, Ken Blevins, was serving as an Army lieutenant in the Korean War. Upon his return, the family moved to Kansas City, Kan., where he had found work as a scientist for Puritan Equipment Co. It didn’t take long for Dad and daughter to butt heads.

“I wanted to go to a private, liberal college and my dad wanted me to go to a state-run public university,” said Scriven. “He said I could … but only if I paid for it. He wasn’t going to give me a dime.”

Scriven promptly got a job at Atchison Topeka Santa Fe Railway as a janitor, crew caller and claim investigator. She also did rates in the accounting department. She earned bachelor’s degrees in elementary and secondary education and English at Benedictine College, a private college in Atchison, Kan. From there she went to Kansas University in Lawrence, where she received a reading specialist degree.

Scriven developed a character called Rainbow Queen and began doing Renaissance festivals and teacher workshops, including the Creative Arts Guild in Dalton. From there she headed to Savannah.

“I had a condo on the beach and was doing my art,” Scriven said. “I was happy as a clam.”

She also taught 12th grade English at Brunswick High School and a night class targeting at-risk athletes. And she met the man who would eventually become her husband, Clint. The couple had two children, Chris and Faith, before divorcing after three years of marriage.

Her parents’ health began to decline in 2000, with her father suffering from emphysema and her mother battling pancreatic cancer. Scriven once again uprooted herself and her children and moved into a house next door to her parents in Chatsworth. The next few years were spent raising children and taking care of her parents.

“I taught vacation Bible school one year at Smyrna Baptist,” Scriven said.

In 2006 Scriven learned the owner of North Georgia Skate Park didn’t want it anymore, and her children talked her into buying it.

“My dad died May 22 and we bought the skate park June 1,” she said. “It became a channel for me and my children to grieve.”

Would Dad have approved of this decision?

“I figure he would have liked the place better if it had a fishing pond and bowling alley,” she laughed.

Scriven aspires to make the skate park a Christian-oriented place for young people to go. She says everyone who comes in is treated with respect, honesty and courtesy. She expects the same in return from the kids. Anyone who is caught with alcohol, drugs or using bad language is tossed out.

One thing Scriven is hoping for is more room.

“I felt God calling me to this,” she said. “I’m trying to buy (a building) to use for an educational building where skaters can come and get help with their studies.”

A New Beginnings Christian outreach hosted by Michael Dennis of the Citrustree Board Riding Co. will be Aug. 3 at 2 p.m. at the skate park.

“We want to be a positive influence on skateboarding and let people know that skateboarding is a positive sport,” Dennis said.

Scriven can hardly contain her excitement.

“Everything you do in life builds on past experiences like a pyramid. I see every kid that comes in here as my own child,” she said.

        

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