Learn-To-Skate 3/17/13
Brent Unger from Henderson High School and Giulia DiSanto from Downingtown West High School joined forces to recruit 78 high school ice hockey skaters from 6 different high schools to teach 51 Chester elementary school students how to ice skate. On Sunday, March 17th, the Andrew L. Hicks, Jr. Foundation sponsored
Learn-To-Skate at Ice Line in West Chester. Participating high school ice hockey teams included: Henderson, Rustin, West Chester East, Bishop Shanahan, Conestoga and Downingtown West. Every skater was paired up with a Chester student at 4pm, and the kids hit the ice together. Some Chester children even had two high school students with them; one on each arm!
After some time either pushing a “walker” or a large rubber cone, or just holding hands, the Chester kids were getting the knack of it. Some of the children were really impressed as the hockey skaters demonstrated their speed and skill and their ability to stop on a dime! Quite a few had wet knees after about 45 minutes and then it was time to take a break.
Ice Line provided delicious baked ziti, hot and cheesy pizza, and drinks for everyone and the pairs got a chance to talk and get to know each other, and lots of them were laughing at themselves and with others. Then it was time to hit the ice again.
Round two on the ice was very productive. Kids that had never skated before were doing laps on their own! It was fun to see the little kids dressed up in hockey uniforms as many of the high school skaters brought an old hockey jersey and gave it to their little skater to keep. The Chester kids put them on immediately and looked like pros!
After that second round of skating, everyone sat down and devoured some vanilla and chocolate cake. It’s amazing how much fun high school kids can have with elementary school kids when the time is purposeful and when both kids are open to making new friends. The event was a huge success if you judge success on smiles and laughter, and the number of new skaters in Chester!
This event would not have been possible without significant volunteer efforts. We are so thankful for the many adults that got involved and for the six high schools that participated in force!
Special thanks:
Ice Line
The Grille at Ice Line
Krapf Bus Company
Henderson Ice Hockey
Rustin Ice Hockey
West Chester East Ice Hockey
Downingtown West Ice Hockey
Bishop Shanahan Ice Hockey
Conestoga Ice Hockey
Tuttle Marketing Services
