Ready! Set! SKATE! That's the new activity made available to all students at Raft River Elementary. Thanks to a generous grant from the Wells Gray Community Forest Corporation, the Raft River Parents Advisory Committee was able to purchase 85 pairs of skates, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to learn the basic skills of skating.
The Sportsplex is without cost to students of School District 73 and Raft River PAC parents wanted to expand the current physical education curriculum to make use of this community asset. The stumbling block was that not all students had skates.
Thanks to the Community Forest grant, all 310 students at Raft River now have access to skates and are able to participate in a unique PE program.
With the new skates in hand, Raft River PAC went about engaging the assistance of a coach and a volunteer team. Royal Bank of Canada was approached and generously allowed the Clearwater branch manager, Christy Dobi, to take time from work to coordinate the program and to use her coaching certification.
During a six-week time period Dobi, along with Kelcie Petre, Barb Coates, Daniela Schwaiger, Ken Kjenstad, Laura Bond, Tasha Jensen and several CSS students, have been providing instruction to the children. Every class participated in two or three one-hour sessions of on-ice instruction.
The goal of this program is to have all kids comfortable on skates so that they can participate in recreational skating, enjoy figure-skating or participate in youth hockey.
Clearwater is fortunate to have such a wonderful facility as the Sportsplex and thanks to the local businesses that continue to sponsor family skating on Fridays and Sundays, our kids can now skate FREE twice a week outside of the school program and practice their skills.
The Sportsplex staff has been tremendous and members of the Raft River PAC can't thank them enough for everything that they have done.
Wells Gray Community Forest Corporation has been vital in the development of this program and members of the Raft River PAC would like to sincerely express their gratitude for the support. Without WGCF's financial contribution, this program would still be an idea as opposed to an active and vibrant part of our school culture that highlights the importance of physically active kids.