Front Yard Skating Rink Brings Wright Street Neighborhood Together
Local siblings and neighbors living in the Wright Street neighborhood spent yesterday afternoon on the ice, enjoying the outdoors and being with one another.
For nearly twenty years the Reilly Family’s front yard has been transformed into an ice skating rink, with neighborhood kids invited to enjoy it on Winter’s coldest days - combatting the doldrums of the season dominated by a pandemic. By Jaime Bairaktaris
The ice rink is custom designed and built by the family and their friends each year around Thanksgiving, allowing ample time for the water to catch a few consecutive days of freezing temperatures to create thick enough ice to skate on. Being only a few inches deep, falling through isn’t disastrous - making it a much safer option than relying on local ponds, and more accessible than the many rinks closed this season due to coronavirus.
To keep the ice smooth, mother-of-five Alison Reilly maintains it with a hot water rake (donated by neighbors) or with a propane blow torch. A true labor of love; the neighborhood tradition is more important this Winter than ever before as the World tries to remain outdoors as much as possible during the COVID-19 crisis.
After school days dominated by at-home-learning and social distancing, ice skating has been a safe way to get kids moving and to promote positive social interaction. The Mayo Clinic cited the benefits of being outside during the Winter, naming ice skating as one of their lowest-risk options to enjoy during the pandemic. Skating and other low-risk social activities are also being promoted as ways to help boost mental health amongst children and adolescents, a goal for many local parents as some push to get kids into schoolhouses full-time in order to grow their social connections and combat isolation.
As temperatures froze and Zoom classes finished, the neighborhood kids waddled down the street in their winter gear last night to get onto the ice to continue the Wright Street Winter tradition. They slipped and fell, and slid and glided, and laughed and chatted under their masks as the friends supported each other on their skates.
With families and neighbors watching from the driveway as smaller kids held the fingers of the older kids leading them around the ice, the front yard rink exemplified how a community can rise up together amidst a pandemic.
The Reilly family has always welcomed their community to enjoy the rink as a way to get kids outside and to make memories together, however never did they imagine how important this year’s memories will be in proving not all was bad during the coronavirus crisis.
With cold weather ahead, the kids on Wright Street won’t be complaining. They’ll be closing their ChromeBooks, lacing up their skates, and gliding out onto the ice.