WINDSOR – The volunteers who run the city’s free skate lending program are having a busy year, with the opening of the new rink in front of city hall — and just steps from their front door.
Art Roth runs All Saints’ Anglican Church’s skate lending program. Tucked inside the church hall are shelves and shelves of skates, in all sizes. He encourages people to come by and borrow a pair for a few weeks or the winter season.
“It’s our gift to the community,” he says.
Skate lending at the church started in December and runs until the end of February. The program started more than 20 years ago, with a donation of six pairs of skates from Mr. Roth himself.
He hasn’t counted the current inventory, but there are hundreds and hundreds of pairs — maybe close to 1,000 all told, he estimates. Last year, the program lent out skates 1,150 times.
On Saturday mornings, people can go into the church hall, where they’ll be fitted with a pair of skates and welcomed to sign them out. The skates come in most sizes and a variety of widths. Due to demand, adult skates are lent out for shorter periods of time, but kids skates can generally be borrowed for the season. There’s also a small selection of helmets.
The program lends out skates to a huge variety of people, says Mr. Roth, everyone from families enrolling their child in skating lessons to corporate and church groups for a fun day out on the ice.
In recent years, about half of their loans have been to newcomers to Canada. “It’s great,” he says. “Some of them come from countries where they’ve never seen ice, let alone do anything on it, so they’re keen to do that.”
The program runs on donations, both of skates and money, but it doesn’t cost much and the program welcomes skate donations every morning except Sunday. Says Mr. Roth: “Our paycheque, we say, is seeing people happy with a pair of skates and coming back with a big smile and say, ‘See you again next year. It’s been great. We’ll need a new size.'”
CBC News
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