Skating on the Crescent looks back on bumpy 2022-23

Like this past winter's temperature, Skating on the Crescent's year has been up and down.

Committee member Jan Verwey says this year's edition of the project ended a little earlier than in previous years. However, Verwey's glad that skaters could enjoy a couple of months of good ice.

"This year, the weather was really good for December and January," mentions Verwey. "Then it just warmed up too much in February. The ice started to melt, and then we couldn't recover. Normally, our season ends at the end of February or early March; this year, we were done, probably in the middle of February."

She adds that, despite being unable to fix the ice, it's still skateable for now. Portagers jumped at the chance to get on the ice as much as possible. Seeing people enjoying the ice on any given afternoon, evening, or weekend made all the work worth it for the group.

"We probably have seven volunteers that helped us throughout this winter, and everything was set up really well," says Verwey. "For the pond hockey, the rinks got put together really nicely, but then it just warmed up too much."

Verwey says they held a couple of events throughout the winter months, with the largest being the Rotary Pond Hockey Championships. They held a few other skate-a-thons, but they had to cancel a few due to the warm weather.

For many, skating on the Crescent in the wintertime is the best city activity. However, someone in the community took these resources for granted. It was reported on Thursday last week that, allegedly, someone had tipped over the changing shack and kicked a hole in the side of it. That was the initial problem. They went and took second look later in the day, and it seemed that someone had also unbolted the handles, which were metal pipes with hockey tape wrapped around it. Skating on the Crescent was unable to comment at this time. However, according to their Facebook post, the ice is skateable.

Vandalism on the changing shack.

Keep up with Skating on the Crescent by checking out their Facebook page here.