I am the the Parks Facilities Foreman for the City of Medicine Hat Parks and Recreation department and would like to nominate this outdoor rink and this Adopt-A-Rink volunteer Ryan Davison. Without volunteers like Ryan Davison there would be no outdoor rinks available for our community residents to use. The below is an excerpt from a recent interview with Ryan Davison which was posted on the City of Medicine Hat’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CityofMedicineHat). Thank you for this opportunity to recognize our Adopt-A-Rink volunteers and outdoor rinks.
Local Hatter, Ryan Davison, has been volunteering with the City of Medicine Hat’s Adopt-a-rink program for close to 20 years at the outdoor rink in Kiwanis Central Park.
“Adopting a rink has helped me stay active during the colder months,” says Davison. “For me I’ve always liked the idea of creating an ice surface, it’s just cool! Volunteering is also rewarding and helps to keep a positive community spirit alive.”
The community’s 14 outdoor rink locations are managed by a group of volunteers each winter. Volunteers are supplied with shovels and hoses, training, and some removal support from the Parks and Recreation City crews. They are asked to build and maintain the ice, flooding and shoveling when necessary.
Ryan has also taken it upon himself to build a smaller ice surface beside the boarded rink for smaller children.
“During the holidays the rink is packed with people playing hockey,” says Davison. “We have lots of little kids in the area that also want to skate so I built a smaller surface that they could enjoy safely.”