Skating ‘kind of cool’
Until Monday, 14-year-old Vincent Hamilton didn’t really consider himself a figure skating enthusiast.
“It’s actually kind of cool to watch, except for the spandex part,” the Garry Middle School eighth-grader said. “It probably takes a lot of work.”
Hamilton’s classmate, Jonathan Smith, also 14, feels similarly about a sport awash in sequins, classical music, spinning, jumping, and men in tights.
“I’m basically a basketball guy, but I haven’t really watched before and actually it looks pretty technical,” Smith said.
The two boys were among 500 Garry and Shaw Middle School students bused to the Spokane Arena to watch the novice pairs finals at the 2007 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Monday afternoon.
The student trip was sponsored by Group Health Cooperative’s Community Foundation, and included enough tickets for the 250 students and staff members from the two northeast Spokane schools.
“This is really a community event and it’s great for our kids to be a part of it … to have pride in their city,” said Garry Principal Brenda Meenach.
Garry and Shaw were targeted by Group Health’s foundation because of each school’s demographics. At both schools more than 75 percent of students qualify for free- and reduced-price lunches, often used as a measure of a community’s poverty.
“These are students that because they are in lower-income areas might not otherwise have had this opportunity,” said Ray Summers, a Group Health communications manager. For many students, it was the first time they had been introduced to figure skating, Summers said.
The two schools and Group Health’s foundation — which advocates for the improved health and lifestyles of children — began planning Monday’s event last summer.
At Garry, students were selected for the chance to see world-class figure skaters by their attendance records and good character at school.
Selected students also received a four-person family pass from the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture to view objects from the World Figure Skating Museum, and a pass to go ice skating at Riverfront Park, including skate rentals.
Just don’t ask them for a definition of a triple axel or a salchow.
“It’s cool how the skaters are so flexible, and they do the flips and twisty thingies,” said Jessica Boit, 12. “They make it look so easy.”