80′s Skipper Bill Martinelli

This website started in 1999 and at several different points over the years, we have heard speak of an extremely passionate skipper who got media coverage in the 80s, but despite diligent research, have never able to find an article or mention about him, etc.   We were always surprised that we didn’t hear from him when the skipping project was getting a lot of publicity, because it seemed like someone in his life would have told him about it!

Imagine our surprise when we were sent this video today that at long last gives us a glimpse of the the 80s skipper in action:

It seems that Bill not only lived in Charlotte, but in Florida too based on this article about him applying for a permit to be able to skip around town with a billboard for money that was ultimately denied in Broward County Florida in 1988. We’ve also heard about a skipper from Newport, Rhode Island as well, but aren’t sure if this is the same guy.

We are thrilled to at least know the name of this early pioneer of the skipping movement so we can officially add him to the Skipping Hall of Fame and would love to connect with Bill Martinelli! If anyone out there knows him, please ask him to get in touch via email!  Or if you have stories about Bill’s skipping many moons ago to relay, we’d love to hear those too.

 

 

 

Prison Skipping

After healing from an injury that caused me to leave my last job, I landed up working in a woman’s prison. I work in the Mental Health Dept. as a Rehabilitation Therapy Assistant. On Thursdays, we go to the gym. We often walk around the gym to warm up before other exercise. I had been skipping some of the distance which the women though was silly. But, eventually, one copied me and found it refreshing and then one more and one more. I wish I could send you a picture of this maximum security facility and the women with felony crimes skipping around the gym. It brings me joy just thinking of how they float along. -NC Skipper, PJ.

Skipping in Charlotte

This skip report came from a skipper named Kim in Charlotte, NC who was iskip’s first head skipper!

Charlotte finally had a group skip….about 14 people joined the fun…. It was a spur of the moment skip. I noticed that people were walking along my street with numbers on…I went outside to find out why and they said it was for MS and that they would be walking for 3 days over 35 miles…. They told me that they would go from my home about one more mile for the day and that the water station was right up the street. I was so impressed that most had the disease that I started to give them inspiration when they were in front of my house. (Which is on a very busy street). I walked with a few and then decided that I would skip the rest of the way… once I began a few more joined in and more and more and more and then saw some friends of mine who also joined in and the other walkers were so impressed and relieved they were near the end that they started to skip as well. Some of the skippers themselves were even crippled with MS and started to gain all of this energy by the skipping going on around them. It was a blast.