Ice skating begins Friday

Sallisaw’s first-ever ice skating rink — even with daytime temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above freezing — welcomes skaters beginning Friday at the downtown Stage Park for a monthlong celebration of the holiday season. It’s one of Sallisaw Main Street’s biggest Christmas gifts ever for Sequoyah County, and Main Street president Josh Rogers can hardly wait for Sallisaw to unwrap the massive present.

“We’ve never had an ice skating rink in town before,” he says, almost giddy with excitement. “People are gonna be really excited about this.”

The journey to installing the temporary ice skating rink at the corner of Choctaw Avenue and Oak Street has been a long one for Rogers and Sallisaw Main Street, almost a year in the making. And while Oklahoma is not usually at the top of the list for an activity associated more with northern locales, the addition of a downtown attraction — if only through the end of the year — accomplishes the goal for city and civic leaders.

Josh Rogers

“In the wintertime, there’s not a lot going on in the downtown,” Rogers admits. “We talked to the city, and asked them what we could do for the downtown as far as events. They said that December seems like a time in the downtown when there’s not a lot going on. So what can we do to bring more people into the downtown area? That’s when we landed on an ice skating rink. The dream of that became a reality quickly.

“After doing some research and pricing, we saw that it was going to be feasible. So we pulled the trigger on it, and we’ve got the rink rented,” he says.

The schedule for the skating opportunity includes two sessions for Thursdays and Fridays, and three sessions for Saturdays. Sundays are reserved for private rental.

All three days — Thursday through Saturday — will feature sessions from 5 to 6:40 p.m. and 7 to 8:40 p.m., but an additional Saturday afternoon session from 3 to 4:40 p.m. will be available.

Cash-only cost per session is $5, but an armband for unlimited skating is available for $8.

Children age 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult at all times, Rogers notes.

Additionally, Sallisaw Main Street has partnered with Sasquatch Printing to launch a community fundraiser to further offset costs of the monthlong venture.

“Main Street took on the responsibility of this, but Main Street is a nonprofit, of course, funded by the community, businesses, business leaders, just community people,” Rogers explains. “And we believe the community will come together. People want to see things in Sallisaw in the downtown area. “All this is growth. So the ice skating rink is something that the city had talked to us about — what could we do to increase activity in the downtown in December. This is something that people can come and bring their whole family.”

In the first few weeks after Rogers first announced in February that the new downtown attraction was planned to fill the traditional December activities void, donations from businesses and individuals were brisk, buoying Rogers’ hopes that the fundraising goal would be met — if not surpassed — quickly.

But more donations are still needed.

“We’re almost halfway there — we like the sound of that,” he says of the $35,000 needed to cover “everything from the ice rink itself and insurance.”

“We encourage people who are considering giving a donation, now is the time to do it,” Rogers says. “We’ve been paying already on everything, so now’s the time to go ahead and do it. It’s a good tax write-off at the end of the year.

“It’s solely a Main Street project, so we’re looking for financial sponsors,” Rogers says. “Of course, Main Street is paying for it, but the more sponsors we get, the more extra activities we can have in the downtown. We’re looking at having events — could even be live music or could be live reindeer, something different on the weekends, maybe even looking at some carriage rides — but the more financial support we get from the community, the more we’ll be able to bring to the downtown.

“Anyone in the community can donate. You can donate as little as $1. It could just be a family in town that wonders what they can do to help, and maybe they want to donate $25. That helps, $25 helps. If everybody in town gave $25, the rink would be paid for. It’s the people that make these things work. Everything counts,” Rogers says.

But while cold, hard cash is a priority, warm, willing bodies are the next most important.

“We’re also looking for volunteer groups and organizations that want to take on working the rink different weekends. Of course, Main Street will be facilitating the activity, but we need different groups to come out and volunteer. No one’s getting paid for this. We will charge [admission], and the money will go back to support the Main Street organization to help cover the costs of doing more for the downtown, so we’re looking for people who are interested in volunteering.

“It can be anything from a youth group, a church group; it can be a bank, it can be an organization, a business — people that wanna come out and just volunteer for a night.” Rogers says that during December, there will be about 20 slots that need to be filled to accept money for admission and check out ice skates.

Those wanting to donate or volunteer should call Carol Brown, Main Street administrative assistant, at 918-776-7920. Be sure to stipulate that the donation is for the ice skating rink, Rogers says.

“Really, on something like this, it’s the people that make this work,” Rogers says. “We can do all the work for it, but if people don’t come and support the downtown and support local and shop local, this doesn’t work. So the more people that come and support it — with all of our events — the more events we’ll be able to do.”