Imagine back to when you were a kid. Did you ever have that one project you just dreamed about, a place designed by a kid, for a kid?

That’s exactly what Mineola’s Flint and Steel nonprofit organization is doing for local youth.

The organization, which has been working tirelessly to give the youth of Mineola, Wood County and beyond a safe place to grow and be their own, has been in operation since 2020. It’s spearheaded by the dad-and-son duo of Todd and Nathan Witt and a host of volunteers.

Nathan is a part of many Wood County projects, including Wood County Walls (which is responsible for putting up all the murals), gaming club, chess club and some of the Wood County music scene. Todd Witt is also part of these and is also a high school science teacher in Grand Saline.

Far from being just another small-term project, the Witts’ vision for this new skate park being built next to St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Mineola is a long-term labor of love.

“This skate park will be here for 40, 60 years. …you know, I’m so excited. I’m so excited to be able to bring my kids here someday. Like I keep thinking about that and to say to my kids, like ‘Me and your grandpa, we didn’t just design this thing, man. We came out here, we filled the sandbags, we shoveled the dirt, we poured the concrete, and we made this thing happen,’” Nathan said.

In fact, the Witts consider Flint and Steel, and by extension the skate park, almost their ministry to the youth of Mineola. To them, it’s important to meet them where they are before doing anything else.

“And that’s like, ‘here’s kind of where I’m at, here’s kind of where you’re at, but [it] doesn’t mean [that I’m] condoning anything. I’m just not going to judge you,’” said Todd.

Because the focus of the project is giving youth a place to be themselves, Flint and Steel wanted to make sure that they were involved in every step of the skate park’s making.

They also brought in Bobby King to be their head designer. King is known worldwide for being part of the construction and design of acclaimed stunt and skate parks. He has worked on China’s Olympic games skate park, parks for ESPN’s X Games and parks for the international skateboarding tournament series “Street League Skateboarding.”

“This park is largely designed by our middle schools. …on rainy days, we would go inside and get the school laptops and say, ‘Hey, screenshot the parts of skate parks that you like the most, that you think are the coolest, that you would want in your own skate park.’ And they sent them to Bobby, he and I workshopped them, and we literally took the pieces of the park and looked at [them],” Nathan said with a smile.

The Witts wanted to make sure that all are included, too, regardless of age.

“We see that when they come out, you know, older brother is skating the park, and mom’s sitting on the bench; well, little brother is running up and down the ramps and jumping and thinking he’s going crazy! So that’s part of the stuff that Bobby understands, and what we care about doing, is creating a park that’s as fun to run as a three-year-old as it is to skate as a 30-year-old,” Nathan said.

From every age range to every kind of exercise or sport, Flint and Steel is involved and wants to make sure that youth have a creative place to grow. After all, the Witts say, if you can’t be creative, how will you learn to be better at things?

So, again, imagine a place that you would have designed when you were young. It probably has picnic tables, things to jump off, snacks, and good friends around.

Flint and Steel is building that – both for today’s youth, their kids, and for generations of Mineola kids to come.

Permanent concrete park features to replace the wooden structures that have been in use for several years and required constant maintenance was scheduled to get underway this week.