08/02/2020
On this final day of SkateShakopee2020, I watched as Beginner Girls, Minuki Samarasekera waited anxiously to have her chance to compete at the first competition in the US in five months. The look on her face, along with all of the other competitors and coaches, was why we raised our hand to try and help develop a competition model that was safe and healthy for our skaters, coaches, officials and staff.
Words cannot express my gratitude to the group of amazing world class officials who made this possible. A special thanks and the warmest 'air' hug to Rick Perez the greatest referee ever. Thank you to Lorie Charbonneau and all of the volunteers for your countless hours of ushering and disinfecting, driving and checking temperatures, set ups and tear downs and everything in between. The wealth of knowledge, the incredible support and the round the clock availability of USFS Product Support and especially the one and only Mia Corsini was outstanding.Thank you to the coaches and skaters who trusted in us to offer a safe environment for this return to play. Finally, thank you to the City of Shakopee and the Shakopee Ice Arena for not only allowing us to host this event in their amazing facility, but for taking an active role in the planning to insure everyone's safety. It has been a six-week whirlwind from start to finish with a lot of laughs in between. The world did stop for a while... but I hope we figured out a way to get up.
