A message from Sarah Gould
Dear neighbours, volunteers, and friends of the Casa Loma Community Rink.
I’m happy to announce that our rink is up and open! We had a great turnout of volunteers to help lay the liner on January 29th, and since then we have been flooding the rink and problem solving as we go.
The good news is that we did it! A lot of work and love went into this rink, and we think it’s pretty amazing. We hope you will all get a chance to skate! The bad news is that the weather forecast is not looking good. We are doing all we can to keep the rink going despite the unseasonably warm temperatures. We’ve been happy to see some skates on the ice, and we hope the community will have more time to enjoy the rink.
I also want to take this opportunity to send out some words of thanks. There are a lot of people who worked hard to build this rink, and it’s been heartwarming to see such a positive community response. We’ve had the support and encouragement of Councillor Josh Matlow and Alex Forgay from the beginning, Nancy Carneiro and Nancy Aranha from the City of Toronto worked hard to help our team get this rink approved, and we could not have had a rink this winter without the generous support of Catriona Delaney and her team at Liberty Entertainment Group/ Casa Loma who provided water for the rink at no cost, gave our team access to the stables, and who have offered help and friendly encouragement along the way. The Casa Loma Residents Association has been a valuable support and helped us connect to our neighbours. Countless people have offered their time, advice and hands on experience. We’d like to send a special shout out to Ray Bernard of the Fairmount Rink Ice-Masters, who took the time to come to our rink to help us get it up and running on the coldest day of the year and to Luciano Borsato for his helpful advice. Last but not least, our neighbours, friends, and families donated to our GoFundMe to help us build the rink, picked up shovels and hoses, and continue to volunteer their time and efforts no matter what the weather predicts. This has truly been a community effort! Even if Season 1 of the Casa Loma Community Rink is a short one, we are going into Season 2 strong.
UPDATE
It was hoped to have a Community Skate at 2pm this Saturday, February 11th. However the unseasonably mild weather has forced the closure of the rink for the time being. In fact, the forecast is for above freezing temperatures every day until at least the last week of the month. Everyone will be informed by email of the rescheduled date if that becomes possible.
