rinkside
LEARN TO SKATE DES MOINES DESIGNS, IMPLEMENTS RIBBONS FOR SNOWPLOW SAM PARTICIPANTS
Learn to Skate Des Moines (Iowa) part-
nered with local marketing company Com- petitive Edge, Inc., to design blue ribbons for their Snowplow Sam skaters. The ribbons are given to the 3- to 5-year-old skaters who need to master a few more elements before moving to the next level. The ribbons are handed out on the last
day of each Learn to Skate session and serve the same purpose as U.S. Figure Skating’s new “half badges” for the Basic Skills levels. Learn to Skate Director Debbie Noe report-
ed she was looking for a way to recognize her skaters’ accomplishments and minimize tears
for those who did not receive a Snowplow Sam badge. The rib- bons were used for the fi rst time at the end of the 2012 fall Learn to Skate session and were a big hit among young skaters. “They were such a big hit,
no tears even!” Noe said. “It was such a joy to see their little eyes light up when they received their ribbon. It was a proud moment for all of us!” If your Learn to Skate program is interest-
ed in purchasing ribbons, please contact Tali Goldberg at
tgold@compet.com.
REFUGEE CHILDREN RECEIVE BASIC SKILLS SCHOLARSHIPS The Albany (N.Y.) Figure Skating Club reached out to
OHIO CLUB, ARENA LAUNCH NEW SYNCHRO TEAM
Responding to a growing need, the
Alice Noble Ice Arena of Wooster, Ohio, and the Wooster Figure Skating Club have formed Precise Ice, a competitive synchronized skating team. The arena fi rst off ered synchronized
skating classes in 2011 through its Learn to Skate program, the Noblettes. With support from the Greater Cleveland Council, the program quickly grew to 13 skaters. After a second-place fi nish at Kent
Basic Skills, the team grew to 20 girls, ages 7 to 13. A grant from the Greater Cleveland Council and fi rst-time U.S. Fig- ure Skating membership rates allowed six skaters to join the club. Precise Ice fi nished second in its
fi rst competition, the Mountain State Synchronized Figure Skating Competi- tion, held in Charleston
W.Va. Precise Ice and the Noblettes are
led by coach Kim Gordon, assistant coach Sarah Nation and volunteer coach Pat Lapsley.
its community and provided Learn to Skate scholarships to three underprivileged skaters to be used during the club’s Sunday afternoon Basic Skills session at the Albany Academy Fieldhouse. The club worked with volunteers from local refugee
resettlement agencies Catholic Charities and U.S. Commit- tee for Refugees and Immigrants Albany to off er free skat- ing lessons to Burmese refugees Ni-Lar and twins Chris- ter-Htoo and Christer-Say. The 11-year-old girls are from the Karen tribe and
had lived their entire lives in a refugee camp in Thailand after their families fl ed to escape the brutality of Burma’s military regime. Ni-Lar has lived in Albany for two years, while the twins have been in the state for less than one year. After their fi rst lesson, Ni-Lar said, “I love it! I love it!” Volunteers shared that all three girls
spent the next week practicing in their socks on the kitchen fl oor. They were fi rst introduced to ice skating by USCRI Albany volunteers who took them to an open-skate session at Bethlehem’s YMCA. “It’s hard to say who benefi ts more from this arrangement,” Albany Figure Skating Club
Program Director Karla Schallehn said. “Our instructors seem to be having as much fun working with these girls as they have learning to skate in our program.”
TRAN BECOMES FIVE-TIME GOLD TEST MEDALIST Taylor Tran (Puyallup,
Wash.) is a U.S. Figure Skating gold test medalist, one of fi g- ure skating’s premier achieve- ments. What’s more, Tran has attained this honor in fi ve dis- ciplines. Over the past four years,
Tran has passed the top tests in moves in the fi eld, freestyle, compulsory dance and free
More than 60 skaters attended the Dallas FSC Halloween Party at the Ice @ Stonebriar Centre on Oct. 28. Win- ning prizes for best costumes included Kaitlyn Toohey as a trick-or-treat bas- ket of candy, Akane and Aoi Eguchi as sushi, McKenna Flood as an ice cream cone and Ashlee Raymond as pop star Katy Perry. Ashleigh Carter won the prize for best-decorated pumpkin.
46 JANUARY 2013
dance. Last July , Tran added solo free dance to her collec- tion of gold test medals. Tran, who represents
the Lakewood Winter Club, trains in Ann Arbor, Mich., with ice dancing partner Sam Kaplun under coach- es Yaroslava Nechaeva and Yuri Chesnichenko. Tran and Kaplun will make their com-
petitive debut at the 2013 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships this month in Omaha, Neb.
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