Skate Club ready for the holiday season and new year
By Fernando Moreno-Prado Times Contributor
The Strathmore Skating Club (SSC) is prepared for the holiday season to showcase what their club is about and potentially draw in new members.
The club has a competition on Saturday, Dec. 7 at the SLS Centre in Cochrane and a Christmas skate show on Wednesday, Dec. 18 at the Strathmore Family Centre at 6:30 p.m.
The Christmas show will feature skaters performing their programs through synchro and creative routines. The show will be open to the public free of charge. A party will be held afterwards.
“It’s definitely a fun show to come out and see what we’ve been up to,” says head coach Breanna Zarowny. She highlights the hard work of the skaters and the fun atmosphere.
The Christmas show’s synchro program has featured the skaters with Christmas music in the past, but this year’s program will come with a change.
“We chose the same song for the whole season so the skaters can get familiarized with the rhythm of the music to match it up with the synchro, just because we are going to be working on a hard star level,” explains Zarowny.
However, some of the skaters doing creative routines will be skating to Christmas music.
There will also be a competition in Stettler on Jan. 18. Zarowny says it’s a popular yearly competition where a lot of skaters compete.
The club is also in line to work at a casino in Calgary in February to raise money for various programs and expenses.
“We get to do it every so many years,” says Zarowny in regards the casino program not being a yearly thing. “But it’s happening next year, finally.”
She says that the club hopes that the casino revenue will pay for coaches, ice time and possibly skater gear such as pants and jackets.
SSC benefits from volunteer work and is always looking for volunteers who can assist in the CanSkate program or on the ice if they are able to skate themselves.
The club includes various programs for skaters ages 3 to 18 and offers adult skating on Fridays. Zarowny says that membership is strong with most programs are full.
The programs cater to different skill levels and interests, she explains. The aim is to teach basic skating skills and provide a pathway for skaters to progress to higher levels. This is done through learn-to-skate programs such as CanSkate and PreCan, as well as figure skating and adult skating.
“We are still accepting new skaters if they want to register for any of our programs,” says Zarowny. Members can register throughout the year.
The other coaches include Jaicey Birch, Olivia Beardsell and Josh Brauner.