Tonight at Club Good Hurt starting at 8pm, there will be a benefit for Venetian Jesse Martinez. If you read this site much, you know that Jesse is a friend of Yo! Venice!. Jesse is friends with pretty much everyone in Venice!
Jesse is a professional skateboarder and is also the main man responsible (with Bill Rosendahl) for getting the now world famous Venice Skate Park built after years of tireless and unpaid effort. Jesse’s continued volunteer work keeps the skate park safe, clean and free of graffiti for the children of Venice to play in. For all of his selfless community involvement, Jesse was awarded the Abbot Kinney Festival’s “Spirit of Venice” this year.
In September, while checking on the skate park late at night like he does every evening (and at dawn), Jesse was confronted by a fixed gear “bicycle club” in the skate park. Jesse told the cyclists they could not “disrespect” the skate park, and the cyclists (8 of them) severely beat Jesse. As a result of the beating, Jesse had multiple bruises, damaged teeth, swelling of the brain and a stack of hospital bills. The LAPD are still investigating this case.
So how can you help Jesse? There are three ways to do so. First: go to the show! If you can’t make it to the show, go buy a Santa Monica Airlines “Jesse Martinez” model skateboard at Venice Originals or Rip City. Jesse gets paid money from sales of this board.
Don’t want a skateboard but still want to help? Use Jim Muir’s email address (dtfamilia@aol.com) at Pay Pal to donate to Jesse’s medical bills. Please find it in your heart to donate. Even five dollars will help. For the amount of selfless work that Jesse does for Venice, we all owe him one.
Seriously, please take the time and help our friend out with a donation of any size. Jesse and his family thank you in advance for doing so.
Club Good Hurt 8PM
12249 Venice Blvd
West Los Angeles, 90066
