Winter is coming which, means good news for hockey fans. Homer’s ice rink, Kevin Bell Arena, is offering some ice time this month, but most programs will begin in October.
President of the Homer Hockey Association Jan Rumble notes that the organization is also starting this year with a strong financial plan.
“In the past year as many people in Homer know, we’ve had some interesting things go on with rink in terms of our finances,” Rumble explained. “But, in the past year, we are excited to say that we have signed a mortgage agreement for a building that has secured our long term future, and that is the greatest thing for us.”
Kevin Bell Arena increased its offerings for younger skaters this year, and the rink is adding a session to their “micro bell” program, a hockey and learn to skate program for kids 4 to 8 years old. In previous years, “micro bell” was only offered once a week, now it will be available twice weekly.
“Because of the change in our bus system for the schools, we are implementing an open skate on Fridays from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. to reflect earlier end of school times. We encourage kids and parents to come to the KBA. It’s a great way to end the week,” Rumble added.
She is also proud to announce that the arena will host several tournaments this season,
Including: the Coed Jamboree on October, a 10-and-under state tournament in March, the
Women’s Winter Jamboree in January, and the Ash Cup Men’s Tournament at the end of the season.
Rumble adds that these events help bring business to town in an otherwise dormant time of year.
Besides Rumble, the Kevin Bell Arena is powered by volunteers. The rink currently has about 75 of them and they run most of the programs.
“We estimated a couple years ago that there were 14,000 hours of volunteer time,” Rumble said. “I estimated it through the program that queried our volunteers to estimate how much they worked. That’s an incredible amount of time.”
However, the arena is still looking for referees, and training is available for those who are interested.
For those who prefer other winter activities, the rink offers figure skating, broomball and curling.
Information about specific programs can be found at the Kevin Bell Arena’s new website, which has a calendar to see what’s going on every day of the week. More information will be found on the arena’s Facebook page.