Innovative new rink ‘incredible’, says Paralympic champ
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/12/2018 (2794 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
For Greg Westlake, the opening of Manitoba’s first fully-accessible outdoor skating rink means he won’t have to crawl to the ice.
The Paralympic medalist, who is captain of Team Canada’s para ice hockey team, was among about 20 people who attended Tuesday’s grand opening of the Dakota Community Centre’s skating rink. The regulation-sized rink features a skate-on pathway to the ice, plexiglass inserts in the boards of the player and penalty boxes for visibility for sledge hockey players, and lowered gate latches leading on to the rink.
“I’ve never seen a rink that’s this accessible and this beautiful that’s an outdoor rink, this might be the leading one in Canada that I’ve seen,” said Westlake. “There is nothing more Canadian than playing hockey outdoors.”
Westlake’s feet were amputated when he was 18 months old, and he started playing sledge hockey when he was 15 years old. He said playing sledge hockey on a regular outdoor rink would typically mean he would have to crawl from the change rooms to the ice.
“It’s the little things they did here, they thought of everything,” said Westlake. “It’s pretty incredible, I’m happy that everybody gets the opportunity (to go skating outdoors) not just the select few.”
The only other fully-accessible rink in Winnipeg is indoors at the Bell MTS IcePlex.
Following the opening of the rink, players from the Collège Jeanne-Sauvé (CJS) high school hockey team had the opportunity to try sledge hockey with players from the Manitoba sledge hockey program.
Mayor Brian Bowman attended the opening and said “we’ve got more to do” in making Winnipeg more accessible to people with physical challenges.
“I’m sure there are many more things that we can and should be doing to make a more accessible city, and we should be open to what we can continue to do to build a more accessible areas for kids of all ages to play.”
Also attending the opening were city councillors Janice Lukes, Markus Chambers, and Brian Mayes, as well as Riel MLA Rochelle Squires and Seine River MLA Janice Morley-Lecomte.
The rink came with a $680,000 price tag, though the centre received $250,000 from the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities and more than $100,000 in funding from all levels of government. Further financial support came private donors, hockey and ringette programming, and a charity golf tournament that raised $12,000.
In 2016, Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews donated $1 million towards the centre’s redevelopment project. A portion of that donation was put towards the rink.
The community centre began construction on the rink in July. In the summer months, the rink will be converted into four beach volleyball courts.
danton.unger@freepress.mb.ca
