In-line skaters, skateboarders and bike riders alike are invited to pick up some free protective gear at a local skate park this month.

Xtreme Wheels Indoor Skate Park on Hertel Avenue near Military Road has teamed up with Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo to give away 60 helmets, wrist pads and knee pads Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. Attendees also will receive education about safe sports practices.

"Even if kids can't afford protection, there's no reason they shouldn't have it," said Virginia Clark, who owns Xtreme Wheels with husband Robert. "This is one of those things where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Almost half of all sports-related head injuries occur while during bicycling, skateboarding or skating incidents, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Women and Children's Hospital in Buffalohas seen a spike in head trauma injuries.

"You see so many kids out on the streets riding without protective gear," said Clark. "We had one of our own kids who had a serious injury that -- if he hadn't been wearing his helmet -- would have been fatal. It was a real eye opener."

Patrons at the skate park, which has 25-foot ceilings and a wide assortment of skate ramps and rails, are required to wear safety equipment.

Xtreme Wheels occupies the first floor of the former John Kam Malting Co., a 26,000-square-foot, abandoned brick building Clark and her partners bought in 1999 for $10,000.

Doing most of the designing and construction work themselves or with volunteers, Clark and her partners invested $500,000 in the building and opened the skate park's doors in the fall of 2003.

Until the recent opening of another park in Central New York, Xtreme Wheels was the largest indoor skate park within a 300-mile radius. Today, it still is by far Western New York's largest, drawing visitors from Canada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The free equipment giveaway isn't the only way the park keeps its roughly 10,000 members safe. Kids at the park weave from one ramp to another, rather than in and out of traffic outside.

Malik Myrick, 11, of Buffalo's Kaisertown neighborhood, said he skates at Xtreme Wheels from open to close almost every day in the summer.

"Where I live, kids will push you and grab your board and tell you it's no good," he said. "They don't let people do that here."

Clark is a mother figure to patrons, most of whom she knows by name and who affectionately call her "V". The skate park has an arcade, concessions area, retail shop and sound stage where local and national acts put on free concerts.

"It's the only place I know where kids from Clarence and East Amherst mingle with kids from Riverside and Black Rock," said Clark. "They're building lifelong friendships. A lot of good things happen here."

schristmann@buffnews.com null