LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Props to Jimmie Santee Jimmie Santee, the Professional Skaters As-


sociation’s executive director in Rochester, Min- nesota, loves to make a scene. It’s something he’s been doing since he was


a kid at the Oakton Ice Arena in Park Ridge, Il- linois, and continues to this day as a member of the Rochester FSC and as a parent of a student at Rochester’s John Marshall High School. T e scenes he enjoys making are those for


local ice shows, school plays and even spooky Halloween experiences in his front yard. Creating props and production sets has always been a labor of love for this former novice and junior champi- on.


“Being able to work with your hands and


being creative … when you are a skater and per- former you have that in your blood,” Jimmie said. “T is is just another way of expressing yourself. Since I don’t perform anymore, this is the way I participate and give back. It’s rewarding for sure.” Last month, Jimmie and his wife, Jamie


Lynn, and their youngest child, Jessica, 15, con- tinued a family tradition by erecting a spooky graveyard scene in their front yard for Hallow- een. Tombstones, skeletons and hauntingly dra- matic lighting made their home in a cul-de-sac the place to go for trick-or-treaters. One of the tombstones included the name of Jackson Haines (1840–1879), regarded as the father of modern fi gure skating. “We have about a dozen kids under the age


of 8 in our neighborhood, so it’s really fun, even though they are scared of my house,” Jimmie said. It’s a tradition that has followed the Santees


and their three children, Ryan, 22; Sarah, 19; and Jessica from their native Chicago to Rochester. Ryan and Sarah perform in Disney on Ice, as their parents did from 1985 to 1995. “We put together a production number to


[Michael Jackson’s] “T riller” when I was man- aging the Oakton Ice Arena about 12 years ago,” Jimmie said. “I started with just basic shapes and painted them to look like gravestones. Every year since, I’ve done research on the Internet on inter- esting gravestones and made additions and im- provements to those props. I also have taken little motors off of a reindeer decoration and installed them in a coffi n, which now opens and closes from the inside with the help of a skeleton’s arm.” T e ice show to “T riller” holds a special


memory for Jimmie, as it was the fi rst time his entire family skated together in a production number. Jessica was 3 and couldn’t really follow the choreography, he joked, so she just skated around. T ey also performed in front of 7,000 people at a minor-league hockey game. At Christmastime, Jimmie lights up the


neighborhood with a vast assortment of lights. “We are always changing things up,” he said. “We enjoy doing it.” Jimmie started working on props and pro-


4 NOVEMBER 2016


duction sets as a boy and got another taste of it when he and Jamie Lynn had time off during their professional careers with Disney on Ice. Working for Hagenbeck-Wallace, a property, cos- tume and scenic design company for Disney ice shows and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Jimmie learned some of the tricks of the trade. “It really lit the fi re of loving to build and


create sets and props,” he said. As parents, Jimmie and Jamie Lynn have


been involved in their local rink, community and schools. T ey help each year with ice shows and plays. One year, they were in charge of decora- tions for senior “lock-in” night at the high school and Jimmie built a huge entrance that featured a Dr. Seuss’ Whoville theme. At the local rink, Jimmie is one of several


members who take great pride and joy in creating props for the annual ice show. Currently he still has one child skating at the rink, but he doesn’t see a time when he’ll ever stop building props and contributing. “T e crew that we have at the club in Roch-


ester, we have four or fi ve whose kids have gradu- ated and moved on,” Jimmie said. “T ey just keep coming back because it’s a fun event and we enjoy doing it.” Being handy also pays off around the house,


as Jimmie takes care of most of his own home improvement projects. T e same, he jokes, can’t be said for his father and U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame brother, David Santee. “I’m self-taught and it’s been a lot of trial


and error,” Jimmie said. “I’ve gotten pretty good because of all the mistakes I’ve made. My brother and my father can point out a screwdriver but I’m not sure how well they would use it.”


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