ARCOLA - Since January, the Arcola Figure Skating Club has been busy practising for its big night on the ice.
The ice show took place on March 16 at the Arcola Prairie Place Complex.
The 28 skaters and coaches took to the ice and the show opened with the playing of O Canada.
This club has been in existence for over 70 years and this year they had 28 children register for the program.
Sarah Rickard is in her second year as president and Tammy Sheridan is the treasurer, and they choose A Night at the Movies for this year’s theme.
They skated twice a week from October until March, attending competitions in Virden, Man., Weyburn and Melville.
In front of a crowd of roughly 200 family and friends, skaters performed solos and duets, including guest skaters who also made their way to the ice.
Coaches and assistant coaches Chloe Dahl, Sethuli Fernando, Emily Almey, Avayah Duhamel, Katelyn Mitchell, Lily Sheridan and Kyra Donahue helped the kids throughout the night, while some tended to them in their performance.
Leanne Sorensen attended once a week from Wawota to teach the star girls.
Rory Greenbank from Wawota performed two solos and through one of her performances added a cartwheel, which left the audience in awe.
According to Rickard, the ages ranged for the club, but the youngest had just turned four and she was a little overwhelmed with all the excitement.
With the movie theme, Graham Carter built a life-sized popcorn box that measured over four feet high, which had yellow and white balloons bubbling over the edge to represent popcorn.
They had a 50/50 raffle table and raffle baskets during the evening, along with a photo booth. Cotton candy was provided by Jeff Bohnert and the Arcola Optimist club supplied the real popcorn.
When the evening concluded, awards were handed out to all the skaters, with a few special awards given to Avayah Duhamel, who won the star skater of the year award, and Natasha Hengen, who received the CanSkate award of the year.
Donahue was presented with a bouquet of flowers and a jacket, as she will be leaving the club to go to university.
The guest skaters, coaches and assistant coaches were all presented a bouquet of flowers by one of the skaters.
Rickard is thankful for all the help the club received during the event, as it is a lot of work, but worthwhile to see the smiles on the kids’ faces.
“All the kids did such a good job,” she said.
She looks forward to seeing everyone in the next season.
