A Year of Building: How First Push Syndicate Expanded Access, Training, and Connection in 2025
There are years where you simply “get through”… and then there are years where you build. This past year was a building year for First Push Syndicate, the kind that quietly lays foundations, strengthens systems, and expands access in ways that will ripple through schools and communities for years to come. From the outside, it may look like “new programs” and “new tools.” From the inside, it felt like belief turning into infrastructure.
One of the biggest milestones this year was launching our online training and learning system on Moodle. For years, our programs grew through hands-on training, in-person sessions, and community word-of-mouth. While powerful, that model limited how far and how fast we could reach educators who wanted to bring skateboarding, balance training, and inclusive outdoor movement into their schools. Now, we have a true digital home. Our Moodle platform allows teachers to access step-by-step Get On Board training, schools to onboard new staff consistently, college programs to integrate our curriculum into coursework, and coaches to revisit lessons, safety standards, and progressions anytime. This wasn’t just a tech upgrade, it was a long-term access upgrade. Whether a teacher is in a rural district, a city school, or somewhere in between, they can now step into our system with clarity, confidence, and support.
This year also marked the launch of our first Pod Spots in Maine and Vermont, shared equipment hubs that allow schools to access gear without needing to own everything. This model was born out of a simple truth: access shouldn’t depend on budget size. PodSpots allow teachers to check out boards, helmets, balance tools, and learning equipment, share resources across districts and communities, and reduce financial barriers for schools that want to start but don’t yet have the space or the budget. It’s a quiet revolution but a powerful one. Instead of asking, “Do we have enough to start?”, more schools can now say, “Yes, we’re ready.”
The Get On Board program continues to grow, now reaching more states than ever before. Our goal is simple: give every school, teacher, and student the chance to experience movement, balance, and joy in a safe and inclusive environment. In addition, our Gear Grant has now become a running grant, meaning schools can apply throughout the year to access the equipment they need to start or expand their programs. This ensures that opportunities don’t stop because the calendar says “end of year”, they keep rolling.
This year, we also started Virtual Sessions, giving us the chance to sit down and connect with amazing teachers, professors, and organizations who have a hand in skateboarding. These conversations allow us to share insights and strategies directly with educators, learn from professionals shaping skateboarding in schools and communities, and build partnerships that strengthen the reach and impact of our programs. It’s one thing to provide gear and curriculum; it’s another to foster community, mentorship, and ongoing support. Our virtual sessions bring the people behind the programs together, creating connection and collaboration that goes beyond any single classroom.
Every board, lesson, login, Pod Spot, and virtual session has one purpose: to open doors for kids. To give students access to movement that feels exciting and relevant, physical education that builds confidence, skills that grow balance, resilience, focus, and joy, and a sense of belonging in spaces that don’t always feel welcoming.
We’re not just launching programs. We’re building a pathway for adaptive skateboarding in schools, a scalable training system that honors safety and progression, a resource-sharing model that lowers barriers, a movement culture that invites every student to try, fall, get back up, and succeed, and a network of educators and organizations connected through mentorship, conversation, and shared experience, and we’re only getting started.
To every educator, partner, student, donor, and community member who helped build this year, thank you. Your belief became structure. Your support became access. Your “yes” became opportunity. Here’s to the next year!