Three years ago, the Jewish Light introduced you to Jewish pig farmer Dave Blum. He and his wife Autumn operate Such and Such Farm in DeSoto, Mo. Their somewhat nontraditional Jewish home sits adjacent to a wide variety of artisanal produce, bleating goats, some random chickens and many grunting pigs.

Blum is also a master welder and one of the craftsmen who created the City Museum. In addition, the busy farmer-welder is a co-owner of a former church in old north St. Louis. The long-abandoned St. Liborius Church is a massive cathedral-like structure that once anchored the community. It sat vacant for years and was deteriorating badly before Blum and his partners rescued it from the wrecking ball.

Ten years ago, then transformed St. Liborius to Sk8 Liborius, an indoor skateboard park and urban art studio. It’s what you might call an extreme fixer-upper. Blum and his team have an ambitious plan to reopen it, in part through a GoFundMe campaign. They’ve raised more than $52,000 so far toward their long-term goal of $1 million.

Blum said funds raised will initially retrofit a 130-year-old building to current occupancy codes.

“Realistically, we’d like to open up the skate park as soon as possible,” said Blum, 39. “In order to do that, we need occupancy permits from the city of St. Louis, so we’re raising money to do all the construction. We need to modernize the building for egress and fire and health and safety and HVAC and the electrical system.”

Ultimately, Blum plans to transform the grand old building into Liborius Urban Art Studios, a skate park and center for art, music and education. The goal is to give people of all ages and backgrounds the chance to improve themselves and the surrounding community through new skills, vocations, and art.

“We have a very direct goal for our community,” he said. “We’ve trained dozens of kids in skills like tuckpointing and carpentry. Our end goal is to build an art hub in North St. Louis in the building with a giant art gallery and skate park. The skate park is very important for the kids because skateboarding transcends age or race or gender or socio-economic class.

“Skateboarding is analogous to the skills and mindset that you need to be successful with anything that you do in life. Falling down and getting back up again, trying and failing until you succeed. That’s the type of mindset you need to be successful at anything that you do. So skateboarding is a really beautiful parallel into working with kids.”

On August 27, Blum and his partners will get an assist from Mission Taco Joint. A popup pay-as-you-wish taco and margarita event will be held in front of Sk8 Liborius at 1850 Hogan Street in North St. Louis from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., along with a live DJ and silent auction.