When Steamboat Springs Middle School teacher Marco Cuevas first brought two skateboards to a small Cuban town in 2017, he didn’t expect it to grow into a yearslong outreach program — or a full-length documentary.

Cuevas heads Nueva Vida Skate (or NVS Ministries), a faith-based organization that uses skateboarding to connect with communities in Cuba. The group is currently producing a feature-length film called “Skating Towards Hope” to document that work and the people behind it.

“We finished our preview movie, and we’re accepting donations to help us fund this film and this project,” said Cuevas. “So we are really excited about the next steps.” 

Nueva Vida Skate began after Cuevas noticed how locals reacted to the skateboards he brought on his early trips. In Cuba, skateboarding equipment isn’t manufactured or widely available for purchase, according to Cuevas. Each board must be imported, often hand-carried by visitors.

“We would go to the town square, and we would bring the skateboards, and people would just want to know what they are, because it’s something they maybe had seen, but never had seen in person,” said Cuevas. “So that allowed us to attract attention, and then each year, we brought more.”

“After a couple of years, we realized this could be something we could use to actually grab people, and then we created a system that allowed kids to come each week,” he added. 

He continued returning each year with more equipment and supplies while leading groups from the Steamboat Christian Center. 

Over time, those visits evolved into something larger: a structured youth program that combined recreation, community service and faith-based mentoring. Participants can earn their own skateboards by showing up consistently or bringing others to join. Many of the first participants now mentor younger kids in the program.

Cuevas said the “remarkable” effort has resulted in a tight-knit community that reaches beyond the skate parks themselves, noting that “it’s impacted not just kids, but family — parents and grandparents.”

Over the past nine years, Cuevas and volunteers from Steamboat Springs have helped build two skate parks in Cuba — including what he called the first “proper skate park” in the country, as far as he is aware. They’ve also supported local churches through service projects, humanitarian aid and routine community meals.

“We also, from a humanitarian standpoint, bring as much as we can as far as clothes, tools — even meds like Band-Aids and ibuprofen,” said Cuevas. “The average person (in Cuba) doesn’t have access to the basic needs that we have.” 


Trips are organized through the Steamboat Christian Center and more than 150 people from the area have participated. 

“Skating Towards Hope,” set to be 60-80 minutes long, is being produced in partnership with local filmmaker Austin Lee Hilde and his company Superdust Films. The documentary will trace how the idea developed, what the organization has accomplished and how an effort that began with a few donated skateboards turned into a cross-country collaboration.

Cuevas said they’ve already filmed two portions of the project and plan several more trips to finish interviews and on-site footage. The team expects the filmmaking process to take about 18 months.

NVS Ministries is crowdfunding approximately $103,000 to cover production, travel, editing and post-production costs. The campaign runs through year-end, with a goal of completing the film in 2026 and screening it at various film festivals.

Cuevas said the success of Nueva Vida Skate has relied heavily on community support in Steamboat Springs, including people who have joined mission trips as well as those who have donated equipment and funds.

“A lot of those people have returned on trips because you develop these friendships through connection of commonalities of beliefs,” he said. “It’s pretty miraculous, how that happens.”

For Cuevas, the film will serve as both documentation and outreach — a way to show what sustained local involvement can accomplish abroad.

“If we all do a little part, then we can cumulatively make the world a better place, even though it sounds cliche,” said Cuevas. 

To learn more about Nueva Vida Skate, watch the documentary preview movie or donate to filmmaking efforts, visit 4agc.com/Landing/NVS-Film.