By Joanne Jamrosz, special to U.S. Figure Skating
The Bremerton Figure Skating Club in Bremerton, Washington, is proud to share their on-ice events with their community throughout the year.
With the pandemic and skating events put on hold for a while, club coach Brenda Peterson came up with an activity to keep the club together and spread some thanks and gratitude to local healthcare workers.
“During this time, our healthcare workers across the country have been working so hard,” Peterson said. “We thought having our local club skaters and families recognize the frontline workers would be a great way to bring the skaters together for a cause and to help them be a part of reaching out to our community of healthcare workers.”
The club reached out to their skaters through email, social media and a Zoom meeting. The club recommended handmade cards but left the format up to the skaters.
“The families that participated were happy to do so,” Peterson said. “They seemed excited to see a person from the club when they came to drop them off. The cards were dropped at a parking lot at our mall with social distancing practiced.”
The notes were then delivered to a local hospital near the ice arena.
“Not being able to go into the hospital as a visitor, they were delivered by a nurse who is the spouse of a club member’s family,” Peterson said. “We delivered about 35 thank you notes.”
Peterson said the hospital was very thankful to receive them.
“I was able to contact the hospital and speak to the Director, who was so happy to receive them and said the nurses and staff really appreciate things like that,” she said. “They were going to put them up during the last week of May.”
Club Director Elaina Graner said the activity was all part of the club’s “Stay Home Stay Safe” campaign.
Peterson, along with Bremerton Ice Center Skating School Director Ann Baharie, organized the “Stay Home Stay Healthy Stay Connected” interpretive challenge in April. The Zoom event divided skaters by levels, and each competed with interpretive programs.
“Each skater was given a performance time, logged on, heard a piece of music and improvised a program for a group of coaches,” Graner said. “This allowed them to try something new and build confidence with performance.”
There was also a “Run It in Your Tennies” competition, where skaters could run short programs, free skates or showcase programs and participate in a spin contest.
“Many of our skaters had to finish or even start new programs during Zoom lessons,” Graner said. “This allowed them to perform them, and it works out great that they will be able to take them directly to the ice.”
Peterson also held weekly Zoom meetings with an inspirational or motivational theme. One such meeting featured Olympian Rosalynn Sumners and her coach Lorraine Borman. Sumners talked about working through injury and disappointment and never giving up. She also spoke about life before during and after the Olympics.
Graner believes the handmade thank you notes gave skaters the feeling of being a part of something important.
“It was a wonderful experience for them to participate in an activity with their club to provide an act of gratitude and community service,” Graner said. “They can see how being a part of a club such as this can impact their local community even beyond their skating. Typically, the skaters experience the club as being a support for their skating. Now they know that the club can reach beyond the rink and impact the bigger community around them.”
