Community on ice

New Windsorites came to Charles Clark Square to learn to skate, thanks to three Windsor organizations.

All Saint’s Anglican Church, the YMCA Settlement Services and Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative hosted their fourth annual family skating event on Februrary 2 at Charles Clark Square. It was open to the public and encouraged newcomers to Canada to learn how to skate.

Art Roth is the skate coordinator at All Saint’s Anglican Church. Roth believes the event is a great opportunity to bring the community together, as well as a way for Windsorites to enjoy the cold weather.

“We’re a cold country, we have these cold spells in the winter. If we’re always complaining about the cold, it’s going to be a long winter,” said Roth. “If we get out and enjoy it a bit, spring comes quicker.”

All Saint’s Anglican Church provided free pairs of skates to borrow, as well as food and beverage for everyone that attended. Roth said that the church’s biggest shortage of supplies for the event is skates.

“If people have skates in their basements, garages or whatever, if you want to pass them on, we’d be glad to take them and we’ll guarantee they will be used again by someone who doesn’t have skates,” Roth said.

Hugo Vega is the regional manager of settlement and Immigration for the YMCA of Southwestern Ontario and one of the managers of the event. Vega said the event was created because of an influx of newcomers in the last few years.

“What inspired this particular event was the arrival of the Syrian refugees,” said Vega. “Shortly after the first winter, All Saint’s Church reached out to us and said they wanted to do something to welcome them and we think there’s nothing more Canadian than ice skating and being able to show them, teach them and integrating them that way.”

Vega thinks the most important things for newcomers is social connection and a sense of community. Vega believes this event is an opportunity to experience both.

“The integration is the main theme of the day. We’re all just human beings trying to make a place in this life,” said Roth.