Figure Skating

 

20mar1952-figureskating
20Mar1952: A photo from the Creston Review of this date, showing two members of the very first year of Creston Figure Skating Club.

Undoubtedly, there were some people with figure-skating abilities in Creston Valley prior to the opening of the Civic Centre. But the installation of artificial ice, with the extended season and reliability of ice conditions that came with it, soon led to the establishment of a figure skating club.

The earliest mention of such a club came in October 1951, and by mid-December approximately 60 people were “taking fancy skating lessons.” By 1960, the organisation was known as the Creston Figure Skating Club, under the coaching leadership of Caroline Clark.

The fire that destroyed the Civic Centre in 1968 put a temporary stop to local figure skating, but the club was reformed for 1972-1973. It has continued ever since: first as the Creston Figure Skating Club, then the Swan Figure Skating Club in the late 1970s, and the Creston Valley Figure Skating Club in the mid-1980s. Today, the club is known as the Creston Valley Skating Club, to better reflect its mandate of providing lessons in recreational, hockey, and power skating, as well as figure skating.

Since the 1970s, the Skating Club has been a part of SkateCanada – the same program that develops Canada’s international skating stars. Skaters in the Club continue to have opportunities to compete in local, regional, and provincial competitions. Two local skaters went on to careers with the Ice Capades: Kay Faynor in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Eileen Wassick in the 1970s. Peter Martin passed his competitive dance test, thereby qualifying to compete on the national level in Ice Dance – the first local skater to do so.