By Larry Grard

lgrard@keepmecurrent.com

Community members, including parents of Pownal Elementary School students, spent a few hours on a recent Saturday morning rebuilding the skating rink at the school’s athletic field.

Tim Giddinge, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, along with Jim Donoghue, physical education director and guidance counselor at the school and others spent about five hours setting up the rink on Dec. 27. The Pownal Fire Department flooded the rink with two tankers of water, and with the onset of the winter cold, it’s good to go.

“This is the fourth year we’ve done it,” said Giddinge, who was there with his wife, Ericka. “We do it when everybody has the time, usually before things begin to freeze up.”

Giddinge said that Hancock Lumber donated the lumber for the rink. L.L. Bean donates skates for students who cannot afford them, he said.

The group, using mostly lumber saved from the year before, put together the frame, installed the plastic liner and then watched the firefighters flood the field. Donoghue arranged the effort, Giddinge said.

“The out-of-pocket expense for the RSU is a couple of hundred dollars a year,” he said. “Jim chose people whose kids use it the most to help.”

Donoghue said that the students use the rink during recess, but it’s available anytime to the public.

“We used the same materials, all we had to buy was the liner,” he said.

Donoghue credited Principal Lisa Demick for getting the skating rink project going four years ago. He said it’s a great way to get kids playing outdoors in the winter.

“Getting children outside in the winter is fantastic,” said Donoghue, who was on his way to a pond hockey game at Porter’s Landing in Freeport. “During recess, the kids can skate.”

Pownal Elementary School students saw a shiny new ice-skating rink when they returned to school from holiday vacation on Monday. Staff photo by Larry Grard

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