The Campbell River Skating Club is wrapping up another great year after returning from its final competition of the season down in Parksville.
“It’s been a fantastic year,” says club president Sue Smith. “Our main goal this year was to not only build the membership, but, more importantly, to build morale and camaraderie between the skaters, the board members and parents.
“We’ve worked very hard at that, and you can tell that the girls, as a group, are very, very tight. We could not have possibly asked for a more encouraging year to continue to build on.
“They all step on the ice with a fantastic attitude and work very hard, they’re excited to be there and they’re having fun together, which is important.”
Smith says one of the most significant things that happened in the past year was the “revamping” of the club’s Code of Conduct.
“It starts at the top and trickles down,” Smith says. “If the board doesn’t project the characteristics that we’re trying to bring out in these girls, if we don’t live it, the girls don’t see it and we can’t expect them to live it, either.”
With that in mind, the club has created a new award this year, which will be given out at the year-end event being held at the end of the month.
It’s called REACH, which stands for exactly those characteristics Smith says they are trying to encourage – respect, effort, attitude, cooperation and honesty.
“Because these are the values we’re trying to live by, we thought it would be appropriate to introduce an award for it,” Smith says, “because those are the values we are hoping propel us forward in the environment we’re trying to create.”
That award, along with others that recognize things like “Most Improved” or “Personal Success,” Smith says, “which recognizes skaters that had a personal goal of some kind they wanted to meet and met it this year,” will be given out at the annual year end event April 27.
After the awards ceremony the club will hold its annual general meeting, where they will decide how to move forward into next season.
But there’s not a lot of time off for the skaters themselves.
“We, of course, don’t have any spring ice here because they’re working on the equipment at Strathcona Gardens, so we’re currently skating at the Comox Valley Skating Club,” Smith says. “They’ve welcomed, I think, seven of our skaters who are making the trip down once or twice a week through the end of May.”
They then get a break until about the middle of July, when they will start their summer skating, which runs through Aug. 9, “and then fall registration opens on Aug. 1 and on Sept. 3 we are back on the ice ready to tackle the 2019/2020 season,” Smith says.
And she hints that there are some big things in store for next year.
“We have some big plans,” she says, “but I can’t say much right now, because there are a couple of things that have to be confirmed at the AGM and a couple of things we’re waiting on contracts to be signed for, but stay tuned.”
As for the final competition of the year, the Vancouver Island Super Series in Parksville April 5-8, here are the local skaters’ results:
Olivia Vardy – Star 1, Silver Ribbon
Valeria Hernandez – Star 1, Silver Ribbon
Alicia McKinnon – Star 1, Merit Ribbon
Stephanie Watts – Star 2, Silver Ribbon
Ayla Bruce – Star 2, Silver Ribbon
Emily Peters – Star 4 (13 & Over), 4th Place
Katiana McCune – Star 4 (13 & Over), 3rd Place/Bronze Medal
Heidi Schulte – Star 4 (13 & Over), 2nd Place/Silver Medal
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