The holiday season is a special time to be thankful for every blessing in our lives. I am challenging all figure skating coaches to pay it forward and sponsor someone into your local learn-to-skate program.
Please consider doing what I did. I met with the PE teacher at my children’s elementary school, Pinion Valley, in Colorado Springs. I showed him the S.T.A.R.S. protocol from US Figure Skating and asked him if he could make it part of his class curriculum and then find out if any of his students that excelled at the exercises were interested in learning how to skate.
He wrote down each student’s name on a piece of paper and in lottery style drew 12 random names (two from each grade 1-6). I decided to sponsor all 12 students into a 7-week USFS Basic Skills program at the CSWA beginning November 2nd and ending December 14th.
You or your club or rink can try this idea throughout the holiday season and in January and February to help promote our sport. It is not only a great way to give back, it can more importantly brighten someone’s day!
Share this message (again) with as many skating people as you know. If you want, share your personal success stories with me or in the social media with everyone you know.
These pictures show the graduates from Basic 1. Their names in alphabetical order (not as pictured) are:
Paige Edling
Sydne Gallardo
Margo Janus
Grace Johnson
Kaylee Moon
McKayla Nelson (not pictured)
Sophie Reed
Kayla Spears
Virginia Waddington
Jack Wambeke
Katherine Wambeke
Jack Zettlemoyer
Instructors for the class are: Jo Ann Schneider Farris, Alex Johnson and Alexe Gilles.