Ceremony for Payne ready for Saturday

Yowell Meadow Skate Park was Hunter Payne’s home away from home before he could even drive.

Payne and his friends would make their way to the park as soon as school let out, and spend countless hours diving into half pikes and practicing tricks.

“Hunter’s passion was skating,” said Lee Kerns, the mother of Payne’s best friend Blake. “But he made a lasting impression with his character as much as with his skating ability.”

The 16-year-old skating enthusiast died May 13, 2007 after suffering head trauma in a tree accident, but thanks to the more than $20,000 that has been donated in his memory, Payne’s presence is still being felt in Culpeper’s skating community.

On Saturday, Kerns — along with Found and Sons Funeral Home and Skate On Our Park (SCOOP) — will hold a ceremony and skating competition in Payne’s memory at 1 p.m. at Yowell Meadow Park.

“Everybody has had a great time putting this together,” Kerns said. “It makes us all feel closer to Hunter.”

The event will feature several speakers that were touched by the tragedy, the unveiling of a memorial stone given by Found and Sons and several pieces of equipment that have been installed in the park using donations.

Perhaps most touched by Payne’s passion, as well as his death, was Terrence Joseph. The Prince William County resident will be at Saturday’s ceremony to meet the family of the boy who is the reason he is alive today.

“As long as Hunter’s heart is beating, he is still with us,” said Hunter’s mother Sarah Payne. “And he’s with me 100-percent every day.”

Payne was an avid supporter of organ donation, and in May 2007 it was those beliefs that saved a life. Joseph, a Guyana native, spent the better part of six years going in and out of hospitals after being diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure in 2001, before receiving Payne’s heart.

“I just want to tell them (Payne family) that I’m extremely grateful to Hunter,” Joseph said. “They were the instruments God used in encouraging Hunter to become a donor.”

Also scheduled to speak at the event are some of the first responders that were at the accident and representatives from the Washington Regional Transplant Community, the organ donation organization that facilitated the meeting of Joseph and the Payne family.

“All the support shows what an incredible kid Hunter was,” Ashleigh Found said. “This was such an enormous donation we really thought people needed to know about it.”

Much of the money donated in honor of Payne was earmarked for improvements on Yowell Meadow’s skate park. A Wall-Ride ramp with custom steps and rail, a hip ramp and a Plaza-Hip ramp with rail and ledge have recently been installed using the gifts.

“I lieu of flowers, Hunter’s mom wanted people to send donations to SCOOP because of how much he loved skating,” Kerns said. 

Hunter Payne touched many lives, some with his skills and others with his generosity. The Washington Regional Transplant Community will be on hand Saturday, giving potential donors the chance to sign up and do something special — save a life.

Ron Counts can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 166 or

Hunter Payne Dedication Ceremony
The skate park at Yowell Meadow will be dedicated in his honor Saturday at
1 p.m.