Watch new skaters take their first spin on Windsor's only city-run outdoor rink

Windsorities strapped on skates, some for the first time, Tuesday at Lanspeary Park's outdoor ice rink.

It's the first year the volunteer-run skating lessons are being put on by the Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative (DWCC) and sponsored by All Saints Anglican Church. The eight-week program is open to all ages for free, but requires registration. Helmets and skates can be provided by the church if needed.

Avery and Cassidy Siemon came with their mom to get better at skating.

"I'm really excited. I feel like it's good to try skating every day so you can develop being even better at ice skating," said Avery.

The twins say they enjoyed their time on the ice. It was their third time.

"I fell a couple of times my first time but I'm getting a lot better," said Avery, who thinks they may want to start figure skating when their older.

"I'm really excited to go ice skating," Cassidy said. "I tired hockey the first time I went and I wasn't very good with it. Also on the first time I tried using a chair and it helped me go faster."

Both were able to get their skates through All Saints Anglican Church. Their mother Ashley Siemon, is a volunteer with the ACCEL program at RE/ACT, which is working with the DWCC. She was there to help children learn to skate.

"I feel like it's a great opportunity. I feel like they get to feel like they're a part of something. They get to learn things they wouldn't usually get an opportunity to do," Ashley said.

Jamie Jardin brought his seven-year-old daughter Lily to give skating a try.

"She's feeling pretty good about it. She's a little unsteady so I tried to lace them up really tight, so we'll see how it goes," he said.

Jardin said he only heard about it the other day and hopes others take advantage of the program. He's also thankful for the skate-lending program.

"You just borrow them and bring them back when you're done with them," Jardin said. "The skates, the helmet, the lessons. Win, win."

Free skate program

Alex Song, the community developer with the DWCC, said All Saints is one of the organizations they work with. The church usually holds skating events at Charles Clark Square. This year, the city permanently closed that location.

Jennifer Knights, executive director of recreation and culture with the City of Windsor, said her department was doing routine maintenance on the Charles Clark Square skating rink when they discovered issues with the rink.  

 "The work that was needed recently kind of uncovered a bigger set of leaks than we were anticipating," she said, adding they went to city council and asked if they should continue work on the old rink, or "put in a new ice rink with the Civic Esplanade and City Hall Square project."

Knights said the city used synthetic ice in 2013 on the Charles Clark Square  rink, but said it was not a good option for the rink location.

"We've been running off natural ice or man-made ice since then," she said, and added the discovery of the leaks have caused the city to consider a new direction. 

Knights said the city hopes they will have a new public rink available for next season. 

All Saints Anglican Church has been lending skates for about 20 years and Song said they wanted to find a solution to continue it even if Charles Clark Square closed.

"A lot of people who borrowed our skates would come there to skate. It was very convenient, right across the street. So I'm concerned about kids not getting the skating opportunities they had in past years, so were here on Tuesday nights encouraging people to skate," said Art Roth, co-ordinator of the All Saints Anglican Church skate lending program.

With the help of Coun. Renaldo Agostino, All Saints Anglican Church and the City of Windsor, the DWCC was able to secure ice time at Lanspeary Park from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Tuesday during the winter.

"We thought it would be a great idea to get people lending skates, and we wanted to try to make the experience better by offering some free lessons," Song said.

So far, 30 people have signed up. The lessons will be given by Song and a handful of volunteers. In addition, Knobby's Kids, a non-profit in Windsor, along with the church have a free hockey program.

"We're trying to recruit teens, adults that have some skating experience and some instructional experience," he said.

It's the best way to make sure everyone can have access to lessons, said Song, adding if the need shows more people want a free skate they could provide that as well.

For the DWCC youth program, Song said he's always looking for different activities that youth downtown may not have been exposed to.

"What that does is sort of put everybody on the playing field and and even if we can get them to stand up or just do very basic things with new activities, we find it really helps the confidence, helps them start to believe in themselves and hopefully start to begin some healing," he said.

Skating was something he wanted to do for them, as it's meant a lot to him and his family.

"I sort of learned later in life how to skate and play hockey when my kids started playing. I just found that hockey and skating in winter is just a rich part of Canadian culture."

The driving factor behind the free skating lessons was making sure the downtown teens could do something they may not have had the opportunity to do without the DWCC providing it for them.

"Especially in downtown, new cultures, for myself, being from immigrant parents, skating was never really introduced to me and found out later in life that this is very much a part of Canadian culture, skating, hockey, outdoor winter sports and activities."