Outdoor Rink

We need your help!

How YOUR Community Rink Ice Is Made and Maintained.

Cameron Heights Community League is thrilled to have our community rink open this year!  Volunteers from the community (NOT City of Edmonton staff) do all the work creating and maintaining rink ice and managing the facilities. 

Maintaining the rink in the winter mostly involves ice maintenance, and ensuring the surrounding walkway areas around the rink are safe for public use.  The quality of the ice is dependent on the frequency of weekly maintenance performed. All maintenance for the rink is provided by residents.  Once the ice is established, maintenance to keep the rink in excellent skating condition requires 3 to 4 nights per week of scraping and flooding (3-4 hrs/session) or weekend mornings for those early risers. We would like to make a schedule where 1or 2 volunteers may sweep rink (power sweeper), and then another volunteer or two can come later and flood the surface, so we can break up the commitment time.

The Community League is well equipped with snow blower, power sweeper, power reel to retract hoses and other tools, so the task is not as strenuous as it may sound, but is made easier with more hands helping.

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Getting the ice ready at the beginning of the season, takes up to 30 hours. We need a team of volunteers to flood for 6 nights in a row (weather permitting) and involves prepping the surface (snow removal if needed) & as many thin layered floods per night as possible to eventually build the ice thickness up to 1.5 to 2 inches (4 to 6cm). This task is much easier with more people on shifts of 2 hours or so. That way the team can keep the flooding going all evening as one end of the rink freezes while you flood other areas. With enough volunteers, each individual may only have to come by 1 or 2 nights of that week. We hope to start flooding in late November or early December. No previous experience needed.

On a regular basis, after skating is done for the evening, the entire ice surface should be shoveled/power swept. Skates create snow and the snow needs to be thrown over the boards. Pushing it to the side of the boards just degrades the ice surface and creates more work. This task takes about 1 hour and is a perfect task for someone wanting some exercise (besides shovelling the driveway).

Several opportunities for volunteering exist. Snow removal after snow fall can be accomplished any time of day with use of a snow blower and power sweeper but is necessary before the rink can be re-opened. If your schedule permits, daytime rink maintenance is always possible also. The goal is to create a schedule of volunteers on an ongoing basis to make lighter work for all.

Teenagers are a good proportion of the users of the rink, so it is great when they come out to help maintain it.

If you are interested in volunteering (no experience is necessary) please contact our Facilities Director, Jason at chcl.facilities@gmail.com