A group of residents in Belleville’s East Hill neighbourhood has come together to build a community ice rink in Robin Jeffrey Park.
Boards for the rink, at the corner of Bridge Street East and Bleecker Avenue, are already up and the group will start making ice once the temperature drops below freezing on a more consistent basis.
Lifelong East Hill resident River Barnwell-McCoy took the lead on organizing the rink and says his goal was to do something to give back to the community.
“I’ve lived in this neighbourhood my whole life and there’s never been a rink in that park. Last year when they rerouted the Santa Claus Parade they had a big event in the park with a petting zoo and hot chocolate, so I came up with the idea that we should put a rink there and we just kind of decided to make it happen.”
He says while East Hill residents will be maintaining and building the rink, it will be available for anyone who wants to use it, once the temperature drops.
“It is a totally public, free use rink. So anyone older, younger, hockey players, anything like that are totally fine to use it. We are just asking that hockey players, especially, keep consideration for younger people and people who aren’t as great on their skates. But it’s totally free for anyone to use.”
The volunteer group plans to be available to clear the rink off after big snowfalls, but anyone who wants to come use the rink may want to bring their own shovel along, in case the rink needs to be cleared.
East Hill residents work on constructing boards for the community rink being put up in the Robin Jeffrey Park, at the corner of Bridge Street East and Bleecker Avenue, in Belleville. (Photo: Facebook / East Hill Community Skating Rink)
Barnwell-McCoy says planning for the rink started at the end of the summer and after the City of Belleville gave the OK, the group was able to raise $4,000 to get the project off the ground.
“We wanted to try to make this as community funded and neighbourhood funded as possible. We raised enough to build all the boards, purchase the liner and get the physical structure of the boards up. We recently just started a new GoFundMe because we did have some feedback from the city about things we needed to add, like lighting and stuff, as well as general winter-long maintenance.”
The rink boards will come down in the summer so the park can be used for other activities, with a plan to reconstruct it next fall. Barnwell-McCoy says he plans to run the rink as long as he can and then hopefully pass it off to one of his younger siblings, or other community members, to continue operation moving forward.
Barnwell-McCoy is also putting out a thank you to all of the volunteers who have helped so far, along with all of the people and businesses who have donated money, or supplies, during the building process.
If you’d like to donate to the project you can click here, or if you’re interested in volunteering or getting more information, you can click here to visit the East Hill Community Ice Rink Facebook page.
Other options for outdoor skating this winter include the Bay of Quinte, once it’s frozen, along with another community rink in Bird Park, north of the Settler’s Ridge subdivision.
That rink was built in 2018 to honour late OPP officer Sylvain Routhier.
