Usually, when you think of ice in the summer it is floating around in a glass of your favourite drink. Sometimes, if you live on the shores of Newfoundland, you may be lucky enough to witness ice in the form of a berg as it wanders lazily along the coast from its original home.
And in Grand Falls-Windsor this summer there is ice at Windsor Stadium.
And users of the stadium could not be happier.
It is there for a purpose, of course.
Last week’s Brian Casey Hockey School and the upcoming two weeks for figure skating instruction for Sparkling Blades members and others were long overdue in the community, and have been requested for years.
Finally, thanks to forward thinking by the town council and its staff, those requests have come to fruition. But it wasn’t easy.
For years, council said there was no demand – it wouldn’t work. Well, it could not have worked out to be further from the truth.
The shrieks of delight from inside the rink will continue well into the “regular” season, as the frozen patch will stay down in the newly renovated stadium until the end of the hockey and figure skating seasons.
The young athletes of this town deserve to have the opportunity they have now been given, as do the dedicated volunteers who give of their free time and talent to teach the kids what they know.
After all, if Danny Cleary can come from Riverhead, Newfoundland and become a Stanley Cup champion, perhaps one of our minor hockey players can achieve the same result.
Who knows, we might even have in our midst the next Joannie Rochette, who was able to inspire an entire nation with her valiant effort at the Vancouver Winter Olympics despite experiencing a personal tragedy the same week.
With greater access to the amenities we now have, perhaps these dreams can come true.
The main thing is, though, that at least their dreams have a chance.
In the small act of opening an ice rink a few months early, the Town of Grand Falls-Windsor might have inspired a child to ‘think big’.
And thinking big can reap positive results.
The kids using Windsor Stadium are not all from this area, either. There are visitors to the town making use of the ice, which means some new money into our economy, which is never a bad thing.
There are those who will say that the town council will lose money by opening the ice so early, and there is no reason why taxpayer dollars should be spent to cater to a small percentage of people who can afford to send their kids to hockey or figure skating school.
That fact is, the Town does not have recreational facilities to make money and if they at least break even it is an accomplishment. Recreation is a service provided to taxpayers in order to improve residents’ quality of life, be it physically, socially, spiritually or psychologically.
Improving those facets of a person’s being should have no price tag.
So, hearty congratulations to the organizers of the hockey and figure skating schools and everyone involved who have made them so successful.
Kudos, too, to the town employees who have worked hard to make the ice as good as possible at Windsor Stadium – no small feat in 30 degree weather.
And, finally, a pat on the back to the council, who finally took a chance and turned the ice plant on in August. Dreaming big could possibly help the town retain its place as a jewel in the crown of the Newfoundland landscape.
David Newell
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