Above: The Twisted Toepicks from the Hollydell FSC and Hollydell Ice Arena cheer on the Philadelphia Rebels as they take the ice.
By Ed Rabinowitz
Entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn noted, “Human beings have the remarkable ability to turn nothing into something.”
Amy Griffith must have been listening.
Faced with Tuesdays where virtually no one was skating, Griffith, the figure skating and Learn to Skate USA director at the Hollydell Ice Arena in Sewell, New Jersey, initiated a special skate session called Tuesday with Amy that has caught fire.
The rink is no longer empty on Tuesdays.
“I’ve always been of the mindset that if there’s a problem, you don’t complain about it, you try and fix it,” Griffith said.
She began in April 2022 with an email to all members of the Hollydell Figure Skating Club and followed that up with a mailing to anyone in Learn to Skate Basic 4 and above. Coaches also began recommending the clinic to their skaters to practice a particular skill.
“We worked on basic things that we might not pay attention to in a private lesson, because of the focus on a specific skill that might be in a program,” Griffth said.
The clinic caught on and soon became anything but basic.
“I’m always trying to think of different things to do with the kids,” Griffith said.
A junior hockey team called the Philadelphia Rebels competes at the arena. A member of the Rebels' marketing team suggested the girls in the Tuesday clinic could perform at the Rebels’ games. With support from the arena owner, Griffith’s girls embraced the idea.
“I told the girls we could do a cheer number with pom-poms,” she said. “We found costumes on Amazon, and it gave the girls a chance to perform in front of a crowd. It was fall 2023. We did four performances, and we had so much fun they wanted to do it again.”
And they did, cheering on the Rebels and performing four more times during the 2024–25 season, and calling themselves The Twisted Toepicks.
Toward the end of that season, the creative juices kicked in again. Griffith, a U.S. Figure Skating gold medalist in ice dance and nine-time U.S. nationals competitor in synchronized skating, attended one of her sister’s synchronized skating competitions. She knew the girls in her Tuesday clinic loved skating together.
“I thought, I could totally do [synchronized skating] with the girls,” Griffith said.
The learning began. Griffith is focused on keeping things simple at the start, but has her sights set on having the girls ready for several competitions in the fall: Essex County Codey Arena in November; Terry Connors Ice Rink in Stamford, Connecticut, in December; and Hershey, Pennsylvania, in February.
“[Hershey] will be a great overnight experience for them,” Griffith said.
The benefits of the Tuesday with Amy clinic are far reaching. Angela Selkregg is president of the Hollydell Figure Skating Club. Her 7-year-old daughter Cecelia has been participating in the Tuesday sessions since they began.
“Cece was brand new to skating when this started, and she was struggling with a couple of her skating moves in her group classes,” Selkregg said. “We were invited to participate in Tuesdays with Amy. That was the starting point, and she never looked back.”
Selkregg said the on-ice benefits have been significant. Her daughter has gained confidence, learned to work as part of a team and taken on more of a leadership role helping some of the newer skaters.
But the experience, she said, is about more than skating to the girls.
“She’s developed life-long friendships; they’re more than just teammates,” Selkregg said. “They’re friends and family to us. It’s exciting that they’re going to do synchro on a competitive team together.”
Watching Griffith on the ice, it’s clear she loves what she does and the ability to share that love with the young skaters.
“I got into the world of synchronized skating as an adult and did it with my two sisters in north Jersey,” she said. “It was a whole different world. I loved the camaraderie. If you get so much out of something, why wouldn’t you share it with others?”
Griffith isn’t looking too far down the road, choosing instead to focus on the fall and the girls’ entrance into the world of competitive synchronized skating.
“My biggest goal is to create a warm environment here where people can learn. I hope it’s a positive experience for them,” she said.
