Thursday, January 14, 2021
VOLUME 3 I ISSUE 29
MERIDIANSOURCE.CA
Backyard rink connects neighbours GEOFF LEE
WRITER
.................................. There’s nothing like a backyard rink to bring families and neighbours together. That’s been the case almost every night this winter at a community rink in Lakeside, where kids along with families and pets come together for a game of hockey on a first-name basis. The 67 ft. by 29 ft. patch of ice is a perennial project led by neighbours Roger Deeks, Arne Jacobson and Jordy Gerling, mainly for the benefit of youngsters in the area. They each spoke about the rink while their own kids played shinny under the lights one night last week. “It’s awesome, it’s handy, it’s here. We look after it and especially now, where you’re supposed to stay inside, it keeps the kids and the adults sane,” said Roger. “It’s something we do in our pastime. This will be our fourth year; this is the third year we had it on public property.” The original rink spread over Jordy’s and Arne’s backyards until they fenced their properties and relocated it to green space behind their homes as a rink for everyone. Jordy says in these last two COVID years, having a
Ethan Gerling keeps his eyes on the puck last Wednesday night under the lights at his neighbourhood ODR. Taylor Weaver/Meridian Source
community rink has been really good. “It gives kids something to do as opposed to sitting in front of the TV or playing video games— shoo ‘em outside,” he said. The temperature has also been ideal for outdoor hockey and skating on the rink this winter. “The weather, it’s been unbelievable this year. We get lots of use out of it; it’s good,” beamed Roger while leaning on a shovel. “We’re lucky to have this.
It’s great. You know, good neighbours, good fun.” He calls Jordy the chief electrician and ice engineer with Arne being the ice technician who usually starts the rink-making process off. “He was home for a couple of days there and he got it up to snuff and made it all perfectly level and I was the beverage engineer,” quipped Roger. “This is the first time with no plastic and it’s the best ice we ever had.” Arne shared some tricks of
the trade after helping Roger and Jordy clear the ice. “We all just bring our hoses out and usually we rely on the snow, level it all out and keep flooding. And it’s timing too, coming out every day and making sure some progress is made,” he said. “We use cold water from the start until we’ve got it level enough, then we’ve got a little contraption that we drive around and floods it with a hot flood.” Jordy says they got lucky this season with the right
amount of snow at the right time. “Arne just shovelled a whole bunch of snow. Roger had a snowblower. We blew all the snow in from as far as we could reach into this area and smoothed it out,” explained Jordy. “We got some old boards, we put them up. We did what we had to do to build a rink.” It isn’t perfect, with the ice being four inches thick in one part and 14 inches in another, but it works. “If anybody from the City of Lloyd is listening right now, we could use a little break on our water bills,” joked Jordy. He, Roger and Arne also worked together one Sunday to string up a set of lights that turn on at 6 p.m. for evening shinny. “We’re really lucky to all be here and enjoy each others’ company and play the game that Canada loves,” said Arne. He says with COVID it’s been great to come out here with the kids and watch them, calling it a privilege with indoor hockey shut down. Roger’s nine-year-old son, Mason, was decked out in full hockey gear and gave the rink his endorsement.
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