Inaugural James Bullbrook Memorial Scholarship Recipient Hopes You Apply in 2024
“100% A once in a lifetime opportunity and it’s so worth it.”
– Zoe Zollinger, 2023 Recipient
We lost our friend and colleague James Bullbrook unexpectedly in January 2022, and we miss him every day. To honour his memory, Curious Public wants to send a young Canadian skateboarder to Woodward Skateboarding Camp, just like how James used to make sure his boy Richie could attend.
Woodward Skateboarding Camp is renowned for its ability to transform young skateboarders into confident and skilled riders — we have seen it for ourselves as we continue to follow Richie’s amazing accomplishments in the sport. He began as a kid, and with the support of his dad, the two of them traveled to Woodward locations all over the United States so Richie could learn skating from the best.
“Nothing challenges me more than skateboarding and nothing brings me more happiness than skateboarding. It has also been a way for me and my mom to bond even more. She’s been with me the whole way.”
In 2023, we launched the annual James Bullbrook Memorial Scholarship (JBMS), providing 500 USD to a skater residing in Canada to attend Woodward PA. In our first year, that deserving skater was 16 year old Zoe Zollinger from Nanaimo BC. In her application, she said, “Nothing challenges me more than skateboarding and nothing brings me more happiness than skateboarding. It has also been a way for me and my mom to bond even more. She’s been with me the whole way.”
We loved getting to know Zoe through the application process, and I was thrilled to catch up with Zoe and her mom, Melissa, to hear how it went:
Kristen Gross: So … How was camp?!
Zoe Zollinger: It was so fun. It was cool to skate with so many people — even a few Canadians! — at these famous facilities, including pros like Mariah Duran. It was super cool. Skateboarding now means even more to me — especially after going to Woodward and progressing so much. It really showed me how much I love it and how badly I want to become an amazing skateboarder. I think about tricks all the time.
KG: What was your biggest takeaway?
ZZ: I learned how to do certain tricks that I’ve been battling with at home because of the skate parks they had there. They had a ‘mini mega,’ which is massive; I had never done it, and I got to skate it every day and it was so cool. It’s what Richie does, but smaller. Richie does those crazy giant mega ramps.
KG: Would you recommend others apply for the scholarship?
ZZ: 100% A once in a lifetime opportunity and it’s so worth it.
KG: And Melissa — how was it from your point of view?
MZ: For me, it was a different type of connection, and a different experience in the sense that usually I’m with her pretty much every time she’s at the skate park battling stuff. So I got to see how she would do with not having me there. And I think for both of us it was cool to see. It was hard for me to let her go and see her go, and I think she was obviously nervous, but to see her do it so well; be able to be somewhere where she didn’t know anybody and then just start skating. Even in situations where she’s kind of on her own, she still has skateboarding and it’s something that she can pull from when she’s feeling overwhelmed. It was cool, as a parent, so see her be able to do that and handle it. I think it was good for her growth as a person to be away.
Zoe and her mom made the trip to Woodward PA in August 2023. Applications for the 2024 JBMS will open in January — please check back and spread the word.
Related Posts
