GORE BAY—Kids of all ages along with adults packed the Gore Bay arena ice surface on Wednesday, March 13 for the very successful Paint the Ice event.
“Forty kids purchased paintbrushes, and moms, dads and grandparents helped them paint the ice,” stated Dave Hillyard, manager of the Gore Bay arena after the event. “I counted over 100 people in attendance.”
The event theme was a farewell to winter and welcome to spring event. Participants paid $5 to buy a paintbrush and paint the ice. “Basically, kids will have a 175 by 85 foot canvas of ice to work on,” said Mr. Hillyard previously, noting the whole idea was that kids would have a huge sheet of ice that they could paint anything they liked using six different colours: baby blue, purple, yellow, black, dark blue and fire truck red.
The ice painting event was held as a fundraiser for the Gore Bay recreation program to help cover the costs of the arena for activities like free family skating, kids’ sponge puck hockey, power skating and other events in town like the parade, fireworks and labour day celebrations.
During March Break there were many other events held at the Gore Bay arena, including a three-on-three kids’ sponge puck hockey tournament, ice soccer, family hockey, family fun skate and youth shinny hockey held each day, atom and peewee hockey practices, and the paint the ice event.
