By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The Ice Village skating rink in downtown Port Angeles wrapped up an abbreviated but successful third season over the weekend, having been open for just one month this year because of Covid restrictions over the winter.
We caught up with Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce Director Marc Abshire, on his phone from the rink as he and a handful of volunteers began the week-long process of putting it all away for next winter.
Abshire reports that once again they got an overwhelming response from some 400-500 volunteers, who put in about a thousand hours of worktime to host 7,000 skaters in 30 days.
He says the Port Angeles Winter Ice Village isn’t the only seasonal skating rink in the country, but few if any do it the way we do.
“It’s a tough lift. You’re not going to find an activity like this in most communities across the country. We’re very unique. You talk to the ice rink company, we’re the only ones that do this kind of thing where, you know, we operate it ourselves and we do it with volunteers and we’re open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. You’re just not going to find that anywhere else in the country. So it’s a pretty unique model and we’re really happy to do it for our community and for the downtown and, it’s really great.”
Abshire says organizers learn a little more each year about how to make it bigger and better, and promises they’ll be back again sometime around Thanksgiving.
By the way, you watch the teardown of the Ice Village live as it happens over the next several days by going to wintericevillage.org.