Snowflake showcases local skaters

Medals were won, some lessons were learned, a legend was remembered, and a great time was had by all in Moose Jaw figure skating this weekend.
The local club hosted two events - the Snowflake regional competition on Saturday, and the FunFest youngsters function on Sunday - and both were hailed as great successes.
"It was a new experience for all of us, but it seemed to go well," said event co-chair Shelley Hager. "The kids looked like they were having fun."
The full name of Sunday's event was the Carol Humphries Memorial FunFest, so named in remembrance of a longtime fixture and supporter of figure skating in Moose Jaw and Saskatchewan. Humphries died in 2007 of cancer, but the organizers wanted to find a way to honour her and her legacy. Joanna Sourwine, regional skating coordinator and friend of Humphries, spoke at the opening ceremonies about the many contributions of the event's namesake.
"Joanna said something to the effect of, 'I know what Carol would be saying - come on, let's get going, these kids are getting cold.' (Carol) always thought about the kids first," said Hager.
While parents volunteered many hours to make the Saturday competition a success, Sunday saw the skaters themselves helping out in nearly every way.
"The kids did a lot," said Hager. "Today, all the judges were teenagers (or younger) and they were responsible for all of the evaluations, and some of them were even out on the ice with the coaches and kids to help them."
The judges provided positive feedback for the young participants, many of whom had never performed in front of a crowd before.
"They judged each child's performance on an... evaluation sheet, trying to be positive," said Hager. "Then we tabulated it on a little report card (to take with them) when they left."
The report cards were merely for encouragement, as the event was non-competitive and every participant received a medal.
As for the youngsters out on the ice, Hager said that they held up well in front of the crowd.
"A lot of them seemed to really like it," she said. "Some of them were really little, so the coaches would just hold their hand and go out and show them... I didn't see any tears or anything."
The club normally uses the Pla-mor rinks for their events, so the switch in venue was a minor point of worry for the organizers.
"Whenever you do something new, you're never quite sure how it's going to go," said Hager, who noted that the only building disruptions were two false fire alarms. "We don't usually ever use the Kinsmen and... we were a little bit nervous, but actually it went really well."

See Tuesday's issue of the Times-Herald for full results.