The Citizen, 2019-01-17, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2019.
Bromleys build rink to make skating a family event
For the last two years, the
Bromleys of Blyth have been
building an ice rink next to their
Hamilton Street residence to bring
skating close to home.
Shawn Bromley explained that his
son, Murray, was already skating and
he and his wife Lisa were just
starting to broach skating with their
daughter June, so the timing made
sense.
“Little kids don’t necessarily have
attention or durability to do anything
like skating for lengths of time,” he
said. “We were looking at skating
lessons, but then thought, why not
build a rink?”
He said that investing in skating
lessons that his children may not be
interested in didn’t really appeal to
the family, so it made sense to try
and do it at home. With a home rink,
the children can skate when they
want to without Shawn or Lisa
having to worry about scheduling
lessons or travelling.
“Murray likes skating and he likes
hockey,” Shawn said. “We just kind
of went from there, because we
figured it would be easier to have the
rink right beside the house than
travel.”
The Bromleys bought a small strip
of land beside their house a number
of years ago, which ended up being a
nearly perfect home for the rink.
“I just looked up online how to
make a rink,” he said. “My father
helped quite a bit with setting it up.”
Shawn, having grown up with a
rink beside his house, figured that
they could manage building the rink
from there.
“It’s putting water outside when
it’s cold,” he said. “It’s not rocket
science.”
That sentiment doesn’t mean there
hasn’t been a bit of a learning curve,
Shawn said. While he originally
thought the plot he had chosen for
the rink was more or less flat, he
discovered, with his first rink, that
there was a grade to the lot. At the
end of the first year, he had nearly a
foot of ice at one end of the rink and
less than half a foot at the other, due
to the grade.
“That one end didn’t thaw until
April,” he said.
The 2017/2018 winter season was
an ideal one for the family’s first
rink, Shawn said, as the cold
weather set in and stayed for a few
months.
“We had ice at the beginning of
December right through to the end of
February,” he said. “There were a
couple times it got mild and we had
to build up the ice, but for the most
part we had a rink for three months.”
He said this year won’t be as
lucky, as December wasn’t very
cold.
“We’ll be lucky if we get a month
out of it,” he said.
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Family rink
Starting last year, the Bromley family of Blyth decided they wanted to have a rink beside the
house to make skating a more accessible, more family-oriented activity. From left: June, Lisa,
Shawn and Murray Bromley. (Denny Scott photo)
Co-op program offers great experiences says Nesbitt
Blyth’s Kaila Nesbitt found some
great experience working at the
P.I.T. Stop classroom at Clinton
Public School that has already had a
beneficial impact on her wishes to
pursue a career in secondary
education.
A Grade 12 student at Central
Huron Secondary School (CHSS),
Nesbitt worked in the classroom,
which focuses on students with
mental health issues or behaviour
problems, through the CHSS Co-
operative education program.
“I like helping others and
coaching, so teaching seems like a
good fit,” she said.
Nesbitt was planning to go to a
Grade 5 classroom for her co-op
placement, but Shane Taylor, one of
the co-op program leaders for
CHSS, suggested she try the P.I.T.
Stop classroom instead.
“He said it would be a better
experience for me going forward,”
she said.
The co-op program offers a good
opportunity to obtain hands-on
experience, Nesbitt said, and while
she learned much from her time in
the classroom, it hasn’t changed her
goal of teaching in a high school
classroom.
“The co-op program has a lot of
benefits to it,” she said. “Of course
there’s new experiences, but you
learn problem-solving techniques as
well and it’s really helped to prepare
me for the future.”
Nesbitt said she would encourage
students to participate in the co-op
program regardless of their career
path because there are a lot of
opportunities for students to try.
“It lets you see what the real world
might be like,” she said.
The program also proved
beneficial when it came time for
Nesbitt to start applying to post-
secondary institutions. She plans on
pursuing either a Bachelor of
History through Wilfrid Laurier
University or the University of
Guelph or a Concurrent Education
Program at Queen’s or York
Universities.
A great experience
Businesses and organizations that participated in the Central Huron Secondary School co-op
program were recognized for their efforts last week, including Clinton Public School. Kaila
Nesbitt said her time at the school has helped her to prepare for a career in secondary school
education and advises her peers, both current and future, that the co-op opportunity isn’t one
to be missed. From left: teacher Chantelle Graham, Lauryn Steinman, teacher Nancy Bicknell,
Leah Caldwell, Principal Luise Hoffman and Nesbitt. (Denny Scott photo)
FREE
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By Denny Scott
The Citizen