Standard “Toys” on ice entertain

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

This year, 31 children enrolled in Standard’s CanSkate program participated in the year-end “Toys”-themed carnival on March 18 with the help of five junior high and high school program assistants – two of which were enrolled in the more advanced StarSkate program.
The Standard Figure Skating Club and the CanSkate program have been a staple activity for children in the community of Standard for many years.
During the carnival, children aged two and over in oversized and flashy costumes showed off the skating techniques they have spent the last six months learning to a large audience. Sometimes they fell, but they all had the courage to get back up and keep skating.
Although last year the club had a large leap in enrollment with over 40 members, a few years ago the club was struggling to keep their base membership, with less than 20 young skaters.
“Carnival is always fun and is something they look forward to. When you have skaters say to you ‘that was fun, I want to do it again,’ all the hard work it takes is well worth it,” said Sonja Koustrup, Standard skating coach for 13 years. She added that the carnival helps the children get a feeling of what it is like to skate in front of a group of people, and that they get to learn and work on synchronized skating – which can open up a whole new world of skating.
During this year’s carnival, skaters ice danced in costumes and to music based on Candyland, teddy bears, Lego, spinning tops, Pokémon, Star Wars, technology, Disney’s Cars, toy guns and John Deere tractors.
The costumes were fun and bright, and the children showed off skills such as skating forward and backward, spinning, skating on one foot or two feet, stopping, glides, spirals, drags, and even a complicated shoot the duck where skaters crouch down on one foot while their second foot is held up in front of them.
The CanSkate program is Canada’s only flagship learn-to-skate program. Every Skate Canada club in the country teaches children the same skills and techniques at each level, and skaters leave the program with knowledge of skating and greater skill level.
Recently, the CanSkate program has changed to become more progressive and is based on circuits that are choreographed to music, rather than the old style of working at certain skills at different stations – which involved more standing around waiting. There is now also a fast track that allows children to work on their skating speed.
“I somewhat attribute the rise in registration to the new CanSkate program and how good it is,” said Koustrup. “Having a skating club in Standard is definitely beneficial to the community. So many kids in this town have learned to skate at our club.”
She added that skills learned by the skaters can be used in hockey, ringette or figure skating, and that usually skaters who were involved in CanSkate when they were younger progress much faster than skaters who only choose to do one or the other.
This year’s carnival is also the first carnival event in which the Standard Arena’s new and improved high efficiency LED lights have been used – which led to several parents commenting on how bright the arena was, how much better it was to see the young skaters and how much easier it was to take photographs.
Other carnival activities included a raffle, a fishing pond for children to win small toys and a bake sale.
“(This club) has brought a love of skating to a lot of the kids over the years. This club brings people together and give the kids of this community something productive to do in the winter. With the school being close to Standard, we are blessed to have skaters from other communities join us,” said Koustrup.