Hadley Park. Lowell, Massachusetts. It is a freezing cold day. Andrea Delahunty hasn’t slept much. She just flew in on a red eye from LA with her chihuahua. She’s been skateboarding since she was 14 years old.

Her petite body dons a Thrasher sweatshirt and she shivers while I talk to her. She has taken a break from soaring back and forth on her skateboard on a cement half-pipe to talk to me.

While we talk, the sound of skateboard wheels colliding with cement echoes through the park.

I ask her about how she got started with skateboarding.

“I got stuck here one day on my birthday and I met all these guys. I got bored just sitting here and doing nothing, so I started skating too. I’m kind of tomboyish, so I fit right in.”

Manny Santiago and Dave Bachinksy are my best friends. “Manny just turned pro with Axion and AMMO. And Dave is on Think and BOX,” she says.

Andrea works a regular job as an interior designer. Before that she worked hospice care, but she skateboards any chance she gets.

“You meet so many people skateboarding. It’s such a solid community of people. It takes a while to get used to your board. Then you come up with different tricks and combinations. My first board was a Pioneer’s board that Dave Bachinksky’s uncle gave to me. Skating became a release for me. I worked a really stressful job in hospice care. Some days I would just come here in my scrubs and skate,” she laughs.

It’s really good exercise, she explains and a lot of her friends are making a living off of it now. “For me, it’s never been about making into a job. I wake up in the morning and go skate, go to the gym, go to work and then go skate again. I work at kids skate-camp during the summers. I love working at camp. I have so much fun with the kids,” she says.

On this day, she has just come from Boardwalk skateshop in Woburn. She explains how she bumped into one of her kids from her skate-camp.  ”You meet people you wouldn’t meet anywhere else. Skaters like to travel and I literally have met people from around the world,” says Andrea.

Andrea recalls the highlight of her life as a skater as she quickly says “hello” to an engineer-type with his board who passes by. “It was at Dew Tour this year with Manny and Dave. It was a blast. We were at this beautiful hotel. It was exactly how you would picture Vegas, almost from out of a movie. I saw all these pro-skaters I grew up admiring. I looked around and I realized, if you follow your dreams– they do come true.”

It was around the same time that Andrea got Manny’s pro-model board.

I ask her if it is difficult to compete as a female in skateboarding competitions.

“You have better luck skating in a male competition,” she explains. You’d probably win more in last place than in first place in a female competition. It’s definitely more difficult. If you’re a girl and you skate, you definitely have to prove yourself.  Sometimes the guys will go skate “street” and I’ll practice by myself. Manny is the one who pushes me the most. For instance, the other day we were at the skate park and he said “I’ll do a hundred heel flips if you do one”.

Andrea cites Vanessa Torres and Elissa Steamer as examples of inspiring female, pro-skaters.

When asked if skating is a tough work out, she described how her legs and abs ache after skating.  ”It’s an amazing work out, she says. Everything hurts at the end of the day.”

Andrea also found another passion a few years ago. She discovered Golden Gloves Boxing after getting sick of running on the treadmill. “I like extreme physical activity, she explains. I wanted something that would keep me in shape that was fun, so I walked into Arthur Ramalho’s gym.

My trainer, Jack O’Neill, couldn’t believe I walked in by myself, but I started going every single day,” she recalls. Arthur Ramalho’s gym was featured in the 2010 film “The Fighter.”

Andrea explains that sparring in boxing is a lot like skateboarding. It just so happens that  the sports she loves have a lot of males around,  even though she describe herself as a “girly-girl.”

Skateboarders and stigmas?

“A honestly think a lot of people think skateboarders are punks” Andrea explains. I would definitely say that most of my friends aren’t really into partying. They’re more into skating, trying to go “pro,” traveling, becoming film-makers, photographers, company reps or working at skate-shops and skate-camps, etc. Some people can’t believe that I can skate but for me  it’s not a big deal because I grew up around it and most of my friends skate.

As everyone is getting ready to pack up and leave, I get a chance to chat with Dave Bachinksy who’s about to embark on a cross-country trip, scouting out competitions. “Going pro is a working process, he explains.” “First, you have get into a shop that will sponsor you, then you go “flow” for a company rep (sponsored skater receives a small amount of products on a regular basis), then you go “am” (amateur) for a company (skaters receive some promotion, products and promotion incentives), then you go “pro” for a company” (skater receives a paycheck, a “pro model” with their name on, funds to go to contests, and royalties for products sold with their names on them.)

How do skaters support themselves in the meantime?

Side projects, couch-surfing. Skateboarders help each other out, Dave explains.

Dave talks about the process of filling in all the cracks at Hadley Park with car bondo every year for the last 12 years. He also shovels snow out in the winter. “It’s completely amazing that the community built this park,” he says. “It just needs up-keep.”

I ask Dave what advice he has for kids who are starting out.

Anybody can skate, it just really depends on what you’re doing it for. But come and shred, borrow people’s boards, get to know people, get hand-me-downs while you’re doing your paper job or whatever.

“This place is helped so many skaters through the years, day in and day out,” Dave explains. It’s crazy to see this new generation. It’s rad.”

You can now purchase Manny Santiago’s line of professional skateboards by AMMO at PER$ONA at 51 Market Street-Downtown Lowell.

Viewers participate in the discussion after the film I Remember Better When I Paint.

I Remember Better When I Paint directed by Eric Ellena and Berna Huebner screened at the ALL Arts Gallery in Lowell, MA on June 7. The film was the fourth of six films in the 2011 Lowell Film Collaborative’s Film and Art series.

The documentary introduced information about the disease as well as presented the personal stories of people living with Alzheimer’s. Some of the symptoms people living with Alzheimer’s face include apathy, anxiety, and agitation. “I can’t do what I used to do” becomes an overriding mantra leading to a cycle where the Alzheimer’s sufferer continues to have less and less confidence in his or her abilities.

While a large body of research does not exist on the effectiveness of art as treatment, many caregivers who work with Alzheimer’s patients have turned to art as a therapy to help their patients manage symptoms. Hilda Goldblatt Gorenstein, an artist whose work was featured in in the 1933 World Fair, told students of the Art Institute of Chicago who were visiting her in a care facility, “I remember better when I paint.” The students worked with her as she started painting once again and noticed her mood shift to enthusiasm as she continued to paint regularly. The film described how this same kind of transformation occurs to many people living with Alzheimer’s who also create art.

Besides creating art, there are many initiatives at Alzheimer’s care facilities to bring their residents to art museums so that they can discuss the work with each other. Many people who see these museum visitors interacting are surprised to find that they are in the disease’s late stages. The film showed people living with Alzheimer’s describing the expressions and emotions of the characters in paintings at museums, a contrast to an almost awkward silence that can occur when they remain at a care facility.

Sean Caulfield, co-founder of Artists for Alzheimers.

Special guests Sean Caulfield, co-founder of Artists for Alzheimer’s; Dr. Ruth Remington, Associate Professor at UMass Lowell; and Julianne Hertz, Arts Therapist and instructor at Lesley University held a discussion after the film.

One audience member told about her concerns connecting with her mother in a nursing home. Hertz suggested bringing in some CDs of music and magazines with ads from the mother’s early years. Another audience member expressed concerns about a loved one experiencing paranoia. Caulfield recommended empathizing, stating that action will be taken, and then following through, without lying. When asked about stuffed animals as a gift for people in a nursing home, Dr. Remington warned that it is important to give age appropriate materials as gifts so that care facility staff won’t react by “baby talking”. A stuffed animal of a realistic cat would be an appropriate gift, but a stuffed animal that might cause the staff to “baby talk” should not be given. All three stressed that people with Alzheimer’s need to be treated with age appropriate respect.

Dr. Ruth Remington, Associate Professor at UMass Lowell.

Along with the issue of respecting family members with Alzheimer’s, the panel also discussed how people living with Alzheimer’s will tend to rise up to challenges if expectations are set appropriately. Many family members who give up on Alzheimer’s family members often feel surprised that their loved ones might have the ability to dress and feed themselves after they challenge the family member to exceed his or her current capabilities. Including the family member in more activities can help the family cope with the struggles of Alzheimer’s.

Artists for Alzheimer’s, co-founded by Caulfield, is looking for artists to volunteer their time. Check out Artists for Alzheimers if you are interested.

The Lowell Film Collaborative’s next screening is a special outdoor screening on June 22 of Riding Bikes with the Dutch at Shedd Park in Lowell. See The Lowell Film Collaborative for more information.

Julianne Hertz, Arts Therapist and instructor at Lesley University.