Students at W.R. Frose School in Fawcett and Dapp School went skating on their community rinks last week, but for different reasons.
In Fawcett, the kids spent half an hour skating in circles to raise money to repay the Fawcett Ag Society for the many hours they’ve spent in the community hall over the years, said event organizer Cristy Paly, who worked with teacher Mary Kaliel to make the day a success.
In essence, it was a chance to “pay it forward,” Paly said.
“The reason we wanted to give back to the Fawcett Ag Society is because we use their hall for our hot lunch program,” she explained. “The kids are allowed to use the ice for skating as well, and they charge us nothing.”
All told, 60 kids took part in the skate-a-thon, which was every student in Grades 1-8. To have all those kids doing laps throughout the entire day was nothing short of amazing. “It was phenomenal,” Paly said. “It was so much fun and the kids had a blast.”
Being on the ice proved to be very productive, as each skater averaged more than 50 laps in their half hour skating.
“In that time, the combined lap total was 3,131 laps for those little monkeys,” Paly said, adding many skaters were very competitive and strove to meet the goals they set for themselves. “That was awesome of us to be able to do that.”
Parents had two ways of pledging the skaters — per lap or as a flat rate. With the kids still needing to collect their pledges, Paly said it’s going to take a few days to learn exactly how much money was raised.
However, she knows some parents are on the hook for a fair chunk of change.
“The ones who were doing per lap, myself included, it cost me a pretty penny all of a sudden,” she said.
Over at Dapp School, close to 40 skaters took to the rink beside the school over the noon hour on Feb. 20 for the community’s skate-a-thon.
In the 45 minutes the kids spent on the ice, they were able to raise close to $1,000, said Sheila Trueblood, who was keeping track of which skaters came through the skate shack and who had already brought in their money.
The money raised will go towards keeping the rink and shack open and in good shape. It will help cover the maintenance, power and heating costs.
In the past, the kids took pledges based on how many laps they did during the event. This year, taking pledges changed to soliciting a lump sum for spending the entire time on the ice.
One of the reasons for the change was that it took some kids a long time to do as many laps as they were pledged, whereas other skaters simply couldn’t meet the goals they set for themselves, according to secretary Delores English.
