The Charles River Conservancy announced a $500,000 challenge grant from the Lynch Foundation for the Conservancy’s skate park project. The grant stipulates that the Lynch Foundation will mach other gifts at a 5-1 ratio. This major donation brings the total amount of money raised to just over $2million, significantly closer to the project’s $2.3 million fundraising goal.

The Charles River Conservancy, at an Oct. 18 luncheon, will honor Peter and Carolyn Lynch and the Lynch Foundation from their commitment to the skate park project—slated for a site in East Cambridge beneath the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge.

“To have a skate park as the pulsating heart of new riverfront parkland will rejuvenate this former industrial wasteland. And this generous gift marks a critical milestone for the project,” said Renata von Tscharner, founder of the Charles River Conservancy. “It is a strong message to other—particularly from one of the most brilliant investment minds in history—that supporting the skate park is a wise investment in our community.”

“Having seen what sports did for our girls… we see the Charles River skate park as something that helps all children,” said Carolyn Lynch.

The Oct. 18 luncheon will be held on the sixth floor of Cambridge’s EF Building, where guests will be treated to a panoramic view of the future skate park location adjacent to the new Northpoint Park. The luncheon’s Master of Ceremonies is Thomas P. O’Neill III, and speakers include Peter and Carolyn Lynch, Boston mayor Thomas M. Menino, Cambridge Mayor Kenneth Reeves and state Rep. Timothy Toomey.

Under the leadership of Charles River Conservancy President and founder Renata von Tscharner, the skate park project has gradually taken shape since the not-for-profit’s founding in 2000. in 2003, Nancy Schon, creator of the “Make Way for Ducklings” sculpture in the Public Gardens, joined forces with the Charles River Conservancy after realizing that skateboarders who used her tortoise and hare sculpture as a practice ground did so because of a lack of legal space for them to skateboard in the city.

The Charles River Conservancy has worked closely with both the site’s current owner, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the parkland’s steward, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, to make the parklands more active and to provide a facility for Boston’s skateboarders, inline skaters and BMX bikers in accordance with the Charles River Conservancy’s mission.

Several features of the skate park are designed after Boston landmarks popular with local skaters, including the Copley Square fountain and Boston Medical Center plaza. The park will accommodate skateboarders, inline skaters and BMX bikers, and be open 24 hours.