A grand opening event for a skate park dedicated to a fallen soldier will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Pacific Community Park, which is on Birk Circle off West Congress Street.
The Jeffrey White Memorial Skate Park is named in honor of White, who was killed in action in April 2012.
Kelly O’Malley, director of tourism for the city of Pacific, said White’s family and friends began a grassroots effort to build a skatepark in his memory in 2021.
“The mission was deeply personal,” she said. “It was to honor Jeffrey while giving today’s young people something Jeffrey and his friends wished they had growing up – a dedicated place to skate in their hometown.”
O’Malley said five years of fundraising generated approximately $130,000.
She also said the city received a $240,572 federal Land and Water Conservation Fund grant to help make the skate park a reality.
O’Malley said the new plaza-style skate park is designed to welcome skaters of all ages and skill levels, “creating a place where young people can gather, learn, challenge themselves and build friendships.”
O’Malley said White grew up in the Pacific area and graduated from Pacific High School in 2008.
Before enlisting in the military, White was known by his friends and family as a talented skateboarder, she said.
“Jeffrey began skateboarding around age 13 and quickly developed a passion for the sport,” O’Malley said. “Friends and family remember a young man who would practice a trick hundreds of times until he got it right.
“He and his friends skated wherever they could around Pacific and dreamed of someday having a skate park in their own hometown.”
In 2009, O’Malley said White enlisted in the United States Army and became a paratrooper assigned to the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
In December 2011, he was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
On April 3, 2012, White was killed in action in the Khost Province of Afghanistan, from wounds sustained in an improvised explosive device attack. He was 21 years old.
O’Malley said White’s fellow soldiers remembered him as, “an athletic, courageous dedicated soldier who worked hard and embraced life.”
She said White’s legacy will now be a permanent part of his community.
“This is more than the opening of a new park,” O’Malley said. “It is the fulfillment of a childhood dream, a testament to what a community can accomplish together and a lasting tribute to a hometown hero who will never be forgotten.”