Nice Ice
February 7, 2010 10:18 AM
Madison's new Adopt The Ice program is starting to get national recognition. The program is featured in the January addition of Athletic Business magazine. If you can't find your copy around the house, you can check it out at www.athleticbusiness.com.
The article outlines our program to tap neighborhood volunteers to care for the ice at some of our skating rinks. The idea is that by using volunteers we can get better ice and maybe save a little money. For example, we need close-at-hand neighbors to shovel snow off the rinks soon after a storm so that the snow doesn't bond to and essentially ruin the ice for skating. More ambitious neighborhoods can also spray down the ice every night with new water to provide really great skating every day.
The article quotes Madison Parks' own Steve Doniger extensively. Steve even gets the last word when he says eloquently, "Neighbors are working together. This gives people a chance to stay a little closer to home. The long-term effect is that not only do they care about ice skating in their neighborhood, they start to care about the whole park; they care about improving the ball diamond come spring; they care about the soccer fields; they care about the playgrounds. This engages them."
There's plenty of good skating weather ahead. If you want to get involved in adopting some ice you can visit http://www.cityofmadison.com/parks/winteradoptice.html.
