Altona area youth looking to hone their hockey and figure skating skills now have another opportunity to do so.
Beginning immediately, numerous ice times from now until the end of the arena season will be available at no charge for children aged 18 years and under, providing an inclusive opportunity for skill development and recreational enjoyment. The initiative, Under 18 Hockey & Skating, was collaboratively developed by Altona Minor Hockey and the Altona Skating Club.
"They identified some gaps in our arena scheduling where there would be an hour here or an hour there that weren't booked and, as a way to provide more ice time for these individuals to hone their skills, they can come out and use this ice time free of charge to work on those skills. The intent of it is fun, unorganized skill development time," explained Eric Hildebrand, the community's Recreation Manager.
So, how does this opportunity differ from the current free public skating program at the rink?
"Public skating is fully intended for those who want to come out and just skate," explained Hildebrand. "Often it's families with young children, the kids are just starting to get comfortable on the ice and it's just fun, low-key skating.
Whereas the Under 18 Hockey & Skating initiative is to be used for those that want to shoot pucks around and if there are skaters who want to practice figure skating."
Other key points include mandatory helmet use, users are required to bring their own pucks, youth under the age of 12 must be supervised by an adult.
A few sessions have already taken place, and Hildebrand says it was great to see the initiative in action.
"I think there was close to two dozen eager young hockey players out on the ice, boys and girls, shooting pucks around. While that was going on, and they were using the whole ice surface, a figure skater came by and wanted to work on their routines so, the kids mutually agreed the skater would get a certain portion of the ice and that they would leave that person alone while they played hockey and worked on hockey skills on the other portion of the arena. That is the entire intent of the program."
In exchange for what Hildebrand expects to be in excess of 200 hours of ice time being made available through this initiative, the user groups have agreed that to pay a fee to the Recreation Department to provide a level of revenue to the Town.
Available Under 18 Hockey & Skating ice times can be found on the arena's online schedule but will typically happen between the hours of 3 p.m.- 10 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. on weekends, with exceptions being made on days where there are no classes in the Borderland School Division. Hildebrand noted, it will be important to frequently check the online schedule as the availability could change on short notice, explaining that a paying ice rental will take precedence.