Skating clubs from across the province will gather at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex Nov. 25 for the Athabasca Skating Club’s first-ever CanSkate Elements event.
Angie Missler, communications co-ordinator for the skating club, said they have invited 45 clubs across Alberta and are hoping to have 100 skaters come out.
“It’s a great experience for younger kids to go to in that it’s a supportive and fun environment to dip your toe into a more slightly more competitive way of assessing and evaluating,” she said.
The elements event will be for skaters of the pre-can skate and canskate age groups, which will be any children age two and up to 12.
Erin Dosenberg, CanSkate coach, said kids at that age level do not compete competitively, so it gives them a taste of skating in front of an audience.
“Basically they’re just going through the circuit and we’re assessing them based on a standard,” she said. “They’re not going head to head with other skaters; they’re just gold, silver, bronze based on the standard.”
While this is the first time the local skating club has hosted their own elements event, skaters have gone to the Village of Andrew three years in a row, and Dosenberg said they “really enjoyed it.”
Dosenberg added everyone in the community is welcome to attend, and it would be a good chance for parents who are contemplating registering their children in the January session to come out and “see what it’s all about.”
The Athabasca Skating Club is also looking for donations for their silent online auction for the event.
“We would certainly welcome that and appreciate that,” Missler said.
