CanSkate in the black

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Skating Club is entering the skating season with a financial buffer due to successful fundraising efforts from last year that have carried forward to this year.
According to Cora Foldi, Strathmore Skating Club media chair, because of this buffer no fundraising will be required from the CanSkate group.
“CanSkate families aren’t doing any fundraising this year because we have a bit of a nest egg so we thought we would cut back on that,” said Foldi. “This year the CanSkate families are free of the fundraising which is kind of nice.”
However, Foldi said figure skating families will still have to do fundraising and they will accomplish this through bottle drives, garage sales and other things.
Foldi noted that there will be other changes at the club this year.
“We’ve got our same coaches but we’ve added another coach, we’ve bought some new CanSkate equipment, and we’re bringing a professional figure skater to do a workshop – Aaron Lowe,” she said.
Lowe is a Canadian ice dancer who, along with partner Megan Wing, won six bronze medals and four silver medals at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships. The duo also finished 11th at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Lowe’s workshop is tentatively booked for Feb. 24.
The Strathmore Skating Club will have five coaches this year. There will be a CanSkate or learn to skate program along with a figure skating program consisting of junior, intermediate and senior skaters.
Power skating will also be offered, which is more geared towards ringette and hockey players. “It’s all about skating, and not about puck handling and skills. It’s all about learning how to skate faster, sharper edges,” said Foldi.
Figure skating has been in full swing since August, power skating is ongoing and CanSkate will start the first week of October with registration open before that.
Those interested in figure skating can sign up at any time and can even go out and give it a try before signing up.
Foldi said that it is always nice to watch the kids reach their goals. She said the figure skaters discuss and set their goals with a coach at the beginning of the year and usually meet them.
“The figure skating girls have lots of competitions and things coming up that we’re pretty excited about. Everybody’s moving up really well and it has been really positive the last few years,” she noted. “They all compete at their own levels and at their own pace, and they travel all over Alberta and sometimes go into B.C. to compete.”
Also new this year will be the senior figure skaters helping teach the CanSkaters. They will receive monthly awards for the assistance that they give each month.
“That’s nice for them to get a little recognition,” said Foldi.
Some of the senior figure skaters have taken CanSkate-certified courses on a more professional level. These courses are offered through Skate Canada.