ROCKINGHAM — Ice skating is coming to Richmond County this winter, another first for the Richmond Plaza Shopping Center at 1305 E. Broad Ave.
Tri-City Inc CEO Neil Robinette said the synthetic ice-skating rink should be operating from “sometime the week before Thanksgiving until after the New Year.”
“We have some exciting things coming for the holiday season,” leasing and tenant relations manager Gabrielle Goodwin said. “All proceeds from ice skating will go to Toys for Tots, and it will bring something we’ve never had here before.”
Goodwin said the rink has been purchased rather than leased or rented, and the plan is to offer ice skating every year during the holidays.
“Any time you do something for the first time, you have to work out the kinks, find out what works and what doesn’t,” she said. “I don’t know anything about ice skating or skating rinks, so there’s going to be a learning curve. But we’re excited. We’re hoping to get some volunteers involved from places like Beta Club and SGA. Toys for Tots will be helping us, too.”
Robinette said the company plans to utilize social media to get the word out about the wintry fun.
“We’re going to post hours of operation and other details on our Facebook page, which can be found by searching ‘Richmond Plaza’ if you’re signed in,” he said. “Generally while school is still in we’ll open in the afternoon and evenings, and then Saturday about all day and Sunday in the afternoons. But we want that to be a way to people can get information, or updates in the event of bad weather. We’ll also be on Twitter.”
Benny Leviner has worked with the local Toys for Tots for the past nine years, and this is his eighth year as coordinator.
“We try to do things better and learn from the mistakes of the past,” he said. “We try to buy toys that are trending, so to speak. Kids these days want more electronics, so we try to stay in touch with what’s going on in the world and with the children of today. Last year we gave toys to about 2,000 children here in Richmond County.”
Leviner said the recent addition of corporate sponsors for the program has helped Toys for Tots immensely in trimming costs.
“Walgreens is a national sponsor for Toys for Tots,” he said. “I try to buy as many (toys) from Walgreens as I can because of the sponsorship. They give us really good deals. Walgreens is mainly for little kids’ toys. Because of this type of sponsorship, for every dollar you would spend for a toy, I can buy that same toy for about 75 cents.”
Leviner expressed concern for the future of the cause.
“We’re getting old, most of us, so we’re trying to get people from the outside to help us,” he said. “Gabrielle and the others started with us last year and did a good job, and I think the skating rink is going to help immensely getting the Toys for Tots name out there. Most of our support comes from churches, especially in the East Rockingham area.”
Leviner said the group also receives help from area automobile dealerships Dieffenbach GM Superstore and Griffin Automotive Group.
“Bojangles’, too,” he added. “This district has maybe 15 or 20 stores in it, and they have formed their own internal Toys for Tots. The Rockingham store distributes the money raised back to Richmond County, and over in Anson County that store does the same for them. They are a big partner to us.”
Leviner said last year, Toys for Tots gave away more than 20 million toys nationally. Begun in 1947 by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, the nonprofit has been generous in its donation of time and volunteer work to ensure that qualifying families are able to provide Christmas gifts for their children during times of economic hardship.
“Synthetic rinks like this are very often used for commercial purposes like this,” Robinette said. “But they are also used by professional ice skaters and hockey teams to practice. So what you’ll be skating on is actually real ice. This is going to be an annual thing for us, and we hope will give people a reason to come here and enjoy the skating and do a little shopping. And there will be a drop-off box for Toys for Tots gifts people may donate.”
Leviner said there are a few guidelines for toys donated to Toys for Tots.
“It has to be a new, unwrapped toy,” he said. “We have to be able to see that toy and what the age recommendation is. The Richmond County Department of Social Services is taking applications right now, and we started packing yesterday. DSS is going to take up to 1,000 children identified by between 400-600 applications, then we take over from there.”
Leviner stressed that DSS is not the only way to qualify to receive toys, and said the organization understands that peoples’ circumstances can change unexpectedly, so they consider donations to families undergoing financial hardship whether or not they are currently receiving public assistance.
“Anybody can go to the Toys for Tots website at www.toysfortots.org and find their local coordinator,” he said. “They just choose the location where they live, and my email address and phone number is on the website. Anybody that has a need — sometimes people lose assets, they lose jobs and things are tough — we encourage anyone that has a need to try and see if they qualify. Most people who are getting services from DSS qualify, but so do others. Whoever a child is living with has to make the request and let us know their situation.”
In addition to spreading the holiday spirit by providing a place to donate to Toys for Tots, Robinette said the rink would bring something to Rockingham that residents might otherwise never experience, or would have to drive a long way to get to.
“At the same time, giving back to local charities is important,” Goodwin said. “Toys for Tots is a good one. During the week when school is still in, we’re interested in doing something with the schools and day care centers. They have field trips and things, and we can only have 45 kids on the rink at a time so it would have to be single classes or maybe pairs of smaller classes. But we are hoping to offer this as something fun and seasonal for them to do also.”
Robinette said Tri-City has worked out a price system for regular visitors.
“It’s going to be $5 per person,” he said. “And they’ll get to skate for 45 minutes. We’ll be running specials at times and try to make it accessible to all people who want to come. We want to help Toys for Tots, and so we want as many people as we can to get some time to skate. That price includes the skates as well. We don’t want anyone bringing their own skates because we don’t want to damage the rink, so people will have to use our skates.”
In addition to the excitement the new ice skating rink is bound to ignite, Goodwin said tenants of the Richmond Plaza Shopping Center will have plenty of room for shoppers if the skating lines get too long.
“Or maybe moms are just trying to shop and they don’t want to have to look after their kids,” she said. “They can tell the dads to take the kids skating and let them shop. The tenants will be having all kinds of sales during the season, so we think this provides an incentive to shop local while also getting to help out Toys for Tots and skate on a real ice skating rink right here in the plaza.”
Robinette invites anyone who wants to volunteer, any church youth groups or organizations who want to be involved can contact Tri-City either through the Richmond Plaza Facebook page or by calling the office at 910-997-2544.
“We’re planning to reach out to some of the area churches and see about having their youth groups maybe come out and set up a hot chocolate stand,” he said. “And they can come and share in the opportunity to raise awareness of projects they are working on, too. There’s nothing like this in surrounding counties, let alone Richmond, so we’re hoping to get some people visiting from other counties.”
Reach reporter Melonie McLaurin at 910-817-2673 and follow her on Twitter @melonieflomer.
