Man With Groton Ties Donates $10,000 To Skate Park

A man who spent summers in Groton Long Point brokered a $10,000 donation to the Groton Skate Park as a condition of selling his business.

For nine years, Sam Batterson ran “Breaking Ground”, a Providence, R.I. company that built skate parks.  Last summer, he sold the business to a company in Joplin, Mo., he said. He got $40,000 for the sale, and as part of the deal required the company to give $10,000 to the Groton Skate Park Fund.

Batterson said he felt connected to Groton and knew his friend and former competitor, Jeff Paprocki, who also builds skate parks, would make the money go far.

“I mean, I could have donated to some park that’s fundraising or something close to where I live, but when you give $10,000 to Groton, you know it’ll get used and you’re probably going to see the results pretty quickly,” Batterson said.

Jerry Lokken, Groton’s manager of recreation services, got the check this week.

“I showed up to work on Monday morning and I opened the mail and there was a check for $10,000 from a company from Joplin, Missouri,” he said.

Lokken said the skate park still has asphalt in areas, and the money will help cover them with concrete.

Batterson bought a boat with the rest of the money from the sale, and has the boat anchored in Portsmouth, Va. He works for the Missouri-based company that bought his business.

He said he’ll be back in Groton to see the park he knows so well.

 “I know Jeff will really make it work,” he said. “(He’ll) build $15,000 worth of stuff with the $10,000. . . And I’d like to see the project flourish.”