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Part of Dufferin Renting Skates and Equipment User Guide: Outdoor Skating Rinks

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From March newsletter 2009

SKATE RENTAL AT DUFFERIN RINK

Wednesday November 5 was a historic day: rink staff Dan Watson drove to Kingston to pick up – finally! – a brand new skate-sharpening machine. The park snack bar earned enough “cookie money” this year, that the rink could finally afford it. This season there will be no public skate-sharpening available – the machine is a manual sharpener and rink staff Dan Watson and Michael Monastyrskyj will be learning the art, practicing on the rental skates only. As they hone their skill, the rental skates should be consistently sharper than in previous years.

The rental fees remain the same: $2 to rent skates, $2 to rent a stick, $2 to rent gloves, and helmets are lent out for free. Thanks again to the NHL Players’ Association, for their wonderful gift of 50 pairs of skates, plus sticks, helmets and gloves, in 2004. That started us off, and having skates to rent out cheaply made it possible for so many more people to join the fun at the rink. Tibetan, Cuban, and Brazilian newcomers have been the most enthusiastic late starters for learning to skate. Whole families come down to the rink, and they all – sometimes including the grandparents – put on rental skates and helmets and slide around the ice.