Laughter supports skating in Shelburne

January 21, 2015 · 0 Comments

Skate Canada Shelburne successfully raised funds for the season with lots of laughs from the Yuk Yuks stand-up comedy, touring company. Troop performers, Jen Grant, Mark Heath and Hunter Collins, hit the stage at the Town and Country Room at the Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex on January 17th.
The event in its fifth year, was originally slotted for October, but with only 35 tickets sold it was moved to January with good response. Treasurer Janice Newton says, “We had great sponsors from local businesses, who donated money, raffle items and food to help keep our costs at a minimum.” The buffet served after the show consisted of donations from Hands on Catering, No Frills, Foodland, Fresh Variety and Pete’s Donuts and Deli. Music was supplied by disc-jockey Jamie Ferris.
The headline comedian for the night, Jen Grant, was fronted by Toronto stand-up Mark Heath originally from Chicago. Heath’s comedy centred on growing up in the infamous city and how it compared to Toronto. The evening was hosted by Montreal native and comedian Hunter Collins, a graduate of the Comedy Writing & Performance Program at Humber College.
The figure skating club dates back over 60 years in Shelburne. Susan Stinton-Wallace is the current president, Bill McCutcheon is Vice, Jennifer Moore is secretary and Janice Newton is treasurer, with members in charge of tests, fundraising, and communication. This year the club has 82 skaters registered, a mixture of both girls and boys, with two full time coaches, John MacMullen and Janice Alguire, as well as two part time coaches, Ashley Seeley and Rebecca Miller.
“We try very hard to keep our registration costs at a reasonable level as we are non profit,” says the Treasurer, “Our ice and coaching fees alone run about $7,000 per month.” As registration fees do not begin to cover those costs, the club must fundraise in order to pay the bills.” This includes monthly pre-teen dances, and selling poinsettias, windshield washer fluid and MacMillans fine foods so far this year, with plans to sell pepperettes after the Yuk Yuks fundraiser.
“It would be much easier just to raise our fees to cover these costs, but then it would become unaffordable for families to put their children into our program,” says Newton whose four children all skated with the club. “This is not simply about teaching kids to skate,” she says:
“It is making them feel a part of our community, it is about making friends, it is about discipline and passion and fun and it is about getting out and learning a new skill and feeling accomplished and proud because of it. We end our season every year with a carnival, not something every club does. It is a lot of work and time and stress. But that weekend is magical. All you have to do is see the smile on a child’s face as they perform their routine and you know it is all worth it. There is a HUGE need for funding. It is hard to keep going out to the community to ask for help to pay our bills. It is hard to keep asking parents to fundraise on a monthly basis. But we do what we can to keep our sport alive year after year because once you have seen that smile, it just makes you keep going.”
For further information or to support the Shelburne figure skating club their e-mail is shelburnesfc@gmail.com

By Marni Walsh