Friends bring Edmonton ice rink to life

By Cheryl Walsh

EDMONTON — The outdoor rink at Grandview Heights is ready for skaters, thanks to five friends who are learning hard work and accountability in order to keep their community rink up and running.

With freezing cold winters and a passion for hockey, outdoor ice rinks are a big hit throughout our city. Shelby, 21, manages a group of five guys who have been friends since they were in elementary school.

“It’s awesome that we can just come work and hang out with out friends while doing something that we love,” said ice rink employee Logan McGlone. “It doesn’t really seem like a job because I’m enjoying it.”

Once everyone has left the rink for the night, out comes a big blue and yellow broom that is used to sweep all of the excess snow that has been scraped off the ice. The rink is large and the broom is rather small by comparison, so the job takes almost an hour to complete.

After all the snow has been swept to the side, the boards need to be scraped and the excess snow around the sides of the rink needs to be shoveled out.

When all of the snow is off of the ice, the guys go into the back of the rink shack, and get the hose ready.

“You have to spray the water on the ice really evenly,” said McGlone. “If you don’t, the surface won’t be smooth when it freezes.”

The entire process takes around four hours to complete and usually after it’s done, the guys call their friends down to play a game of hockey for a few hours.

Lucas Palamarek, a staff member at Grandview ice rink, said working with his good group of friends makes him more accountable. Sometimes at the end of the night, if he’s really tired, he thinks about not completing all of his tasks, but quickly remembers that whoever will be in the next day will have to do it, and he doesn’t want to do that to his friends.

It’s not strange to find three or four young men who are not scheduled or getting paid hanging around the rink during after hours helping out and keeping their friends company on the job.

Grandview’s rink is so popular that it often has to turn people away. The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues has a map of all of Edmonton’s outdoor community rinks if you’re looking for a place to skate.

Twelve-year-old Forrest Chatwin of Grandview says this is the favourite part of his day.

“I just love coming down here with my buddies,” said Chatwin. “You just call them up and they’re all here within minutes and everyone wants to skate.”