The Wawota Skating Club hosted a Fun Fest on Sunday, Jan. 17, with 28 kids attending from Wawota, Moosomin, Kipling, Carlyle, Arcola, and Carnduff.
“It’s a way to bring skaters together, for them to get to know each other, and to showcase their skills,” Tami Dovell, a volunteer, stated. “It’s a fun skills competition and we have a tradeshow upstairs as well.”
The Wawota Skating Club president, Samantha Greenbank, added, “It’s a fun event for young kids out skating. It gives them a chance to show off what they can do.”
There were both individual and team events hosted throughout the day. Each skill group were given a variety of elements to conduct in a circuit, which the two evaluators took note of.
This year’s evaluators were Valerie VanDresar a past Wawota skating coach and Shasta Bear who is just starting with the club as its StarSkate coach.
The day was facilitated by the Wawota Skating Club and their head skating coach, Leanne Sorenson, with the help of volunteer Program Assistants, and the two evaluators.
“The assistants on the ice today are from the Wawota Skating Club as well and they like to help the younger ones in the club which is nice because that’s the only way a small skating club can really do well,” Dovell said. “The kids in the programs really like the older girls and look up to them, which is nice.”
Fun Fest is a CanSkate event, which Sorenson explained isn’t as popular as it once was, but is a great way to get youth involved and having fun skating because they earn a certificate and a small prize for their efforts.
The Wawota Skating Club had gone for a few years without being active, but started up again in full force last year and have seen numbers increase this year taking them to over 20 skaters within the pre-CanSkate, CanSkate, and StarSkate programs.
“Leanne the coach, she pulls everything together and puts in a lot of work,” Kelsey Beauchesne, one of the organizers for the day, stated.
