{"id":2940,"date":"2021-02-03T11:13:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T16:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/?p=2940"},"modified":"2021-02-04T07:29:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T12:29:39","slug":"benzonia-ice-rink-if-you-build-it-they-will-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/benzonia-ice-rink-if-you-build-it-they-will-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Benzonia Ice Rink: If You Build It, They Will Come"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Longevity of the ephemeral ice rink<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Aubrey Ann Parker
Current Editor<\/strong>

It was Christmas Eve 2014 when the Musgraves, a family of five, had moved to the south shore of Crystal Lake from Indianapolis so that mother Lisa could take over a dental practice in downtown Beulah. The three Musgrave children\u2014Maya, Michael, and Quinten\u2014had not yet been enrolled in school, and they did not really know much of anyone in Northern Michigan. But on that first full day in Benzie County, the family headed to the Benzonia Ice Rink with brand new skates that the children had found under the Yule tree.

\u201cIt was like the agora<\/em>, the central, public space in ancient Greek city-states. This idea about the local community meeting place\u2014that was the ice rink,\u201d Dr. Lisa Musgrave says. \u201cWe met some new friends there immediately. We have good memories of going there.\u201d 

Now, six years later and deeply ingrained in this place, Musgrave is giving back to the community by starting a free skate-check-out program in conjunction with the Benzonia Public Library, located right next to the ice rink at Academy Park, at the corner of Traverse Avenue and US-31. Benzie\u2019s long-standing outdoor rink is one of only a handful in Northern Michigan, and though it has changed locations at least twice, it has been around for decades\u2014in the writing of this article, we actually had a hard time tracking down just how long, exactly.

\u201cI skated on the rink as a kid,\u201d says 70-year-old Jack Rineer, who grew up in both Dayton, Ohio, and Beulah, Michigan. Rineer went on to maintain the ice rink at Beulah beach and later at Academy Park for close to five decades, until just a few years ago. \u201cThere was a guy, Graydon Shively, who did it before me [in the 1950s at the Benzonia school]… I\u2019m glad to hear that someone\u2019s picked up the job; that\u2019s always good news.\u201d

That someone is Chris Howard (49), who moved to Northern Michigan five years ago to start The Cottage Pros, located on the US-31 hill between Honor and Beulah. Typically, his 35 year-round employees can be found building houses and deck additions, putting in docks, working on lawn maintenance, or \u201cjust about every odd job\u201d that home- and cottage-owners could need done, Howard says. But since late December 2020, The Cottage Pros has had five employees who have been taking turns maintaining the Benzonia Ice Rink. Every morning, someone arrives at 5 a.m. to plow and\/or flood the rink; they are usually finished before 9 a.m.

Though a mid-January thaw meant that The Cottage Pros team had to restart from scratch at building the ice base, the rink was initially ready for skaters by the first of the year. By the following weekend, Rachele Sargent Boylan (40) had baked dozens of cookies and made gallons of hot cocoa to give to skaters from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 9, 2021.

\u201cI had the cocoa, and Chris [Howard] brought cups and lids,\u201d says Boylan, whose husband owns Xpert Fulfillment, a Benzonia-based company. \u201cIt was all free of charge. Just a couple of local business owners coming together and letting people know that they don\u2019t have to have a lot of money to have fun.\u201d

Between the library and the Musgraves, Shively and Rineer and The Cottage Pros, Boylan\u2019s treats, and the herculean fundraising efforts of the late Dennis Pace and now others\u2014if it sounds like it takes a village to make the ice rink a success, that is because it does. 

Maybe not a literal village\u2014though it kicks in money and resources, too\u2014but definitely a community of hard-working and caring people. The Benzonia Ice Rink is, in fact, a testament to the heart of this community to create something that is so ephemeral, yet has held more than half a century of joy for hundreds of young and old each year.

New Era<\/strong>
Chris Howard, who has a cottage on Platte Lake and lives in Traverse City, remembers skating on the outdoor rink in Benzie County when he was younger. 

\u201cMy grandparents lived here all their lives, so I grew up in downtown Beulah in the summers, and we visited in the winter. And we would skate every chance we got\u2014even played a little hockey.\u201d

Now, Howard sees this as his chance to give back to the same community who helped to raise him. He first contacted government officials more than a year ago, in hopes of helping with the rink during the 2019-20 winter, but the weather did not cooperate. This year, however, his team has been able to get the rink up and running twice now: at the end of December and again in the middle of January, after a brief thaw.

Howard says it takes 24 hours of nonstop flooding the park to get it started. It requires his workers to stay out all night long on the coldest nights to get a solid base of ice. Some have noticed that the rink seems larger than usual: a quick, likely inaccurate measurement done by this writer puts the rink at about 150 feet by 350 feet.

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty much the size of a football field,\u201d Howard says. \u201cWe thought we were doing the community a neat little favor. We bought six new hockey nets, too. But we had no idea that everyone missed the rink as much as they did. We\u2019ve had people coming out of the woodwork to thank us every time that we\u2019re there working on it: they wave, stop by and thank us, honk their horns. It\u2019s an awesome feeling. I knew that it was missed, but not as much as people are showing.\u201d

Howard says that he has been on the ice himself once this year, along with his wife and their two teenage daughters. In the future, he hopes that they can keep adding to the ambiance.

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re just getting our feet wet this year, pun intended,\u201d he says. \u201cAdding a warming station for next year, maybe concessions, or food trucks on the weekends.\u201d

He also commends Musgrave on her efforts with the new skate-check-out program.

\u201cI was trying to think of a way to do something like that, and it\u2019s brilliant.\u201d

The idea to partner with the library to provide skates to the public, free of charge, came to Dr. Lisa Musgrave (50) when she was asking patients if they had heard about the ice rink being back after a three-year hiatus. She was dismayed with two back-to-back answers that she heard within about 10 minutes. 

\u201cThey said to me, \u2018Awesome, but we don\u2019t skate, because it\u2019s too expensive,\u2019 or \u2018We have three kids, and they grow too fast to buy skates\u2019,\u201d Musgrave recalls. \u201cIt made me pause and think.\u201d

With COVID-19 looming, hosting a \u201cskate swap\u201d seemed too daunting. There had to be a better way, Musgrave thought to herself. Then she drove over to the rink and parked her car.

\u201cAnd there was the answer, right in front of me\u2014the library is right next door,\u201d says Musgrave, who adds that her mother was an elementary school librarian. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t just about the books for my mom. She would always find a way to send other things home: a board game, a puppet, whatever. So, why couldn\u2019t we send home skates?\u201d 

She adds: \u201cI grew up with a lot of mentors who believed in the power of \u2018the ask.\u2019 Everything is possible, and it never hurts to ask.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bauer
By the first week of February, the Benzonia Public Library will have 40 pairs of brand new skates\u2014size 10 kids through adult sizes\u2014available to check out for up to 48 hours, thanks to a new program, sponsored by Dr. Lisa Musgrave. Photos courtesy of Lisa Musgrave.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, Musgrave did just that. She says that her two sons love to skate, but they are picky about what skates they like to wear. Bauer <\/a>are among the favorite hockey skates on many \u201cbest of\u201d lists, including those of the Musgrave boys. So she called to see if they might be willing to sponsor a program like the one that she had in mind.

\u201cI must have gotten the right person on the phone,\u201d Musgrave says. \u201cNext thing you know, she\u2019s emailing me back that they would sell us the skates at cost\u2014we\u2019re getting these for 10 percent of the retail price.\u201d

As for partnering with the library, Musgrave says that one of her favorite quotes about libraries is from R. David Lankes: \u201cBad libraries only build collections. Good libraries build services\u2026 Great libraries build communities.\u201d
 
\u201cIt is so much more than a place that holds books,\u201d she says. She adds that her husband has teased her about being a dentist who is sponsoring hockey skates, but she has done her research. \u201cNinety-three percent of all hockey injuries to the mouth are from the sticks, so I\u2019m encouraging people to wear mouthguards while they skate. But we can\u2019t rent those out from the library. Especially during a pandemic.\u201d 

Meanwhile, Boylan\u2019s family moved to Benzie County in 1989, and she remembers using the ice rink when it was at the Beulah beach, and also after Rineer moved the rink back to Benzonia.

\u201cMy dad played hockey in high school, so he\u2019s always been a skater, and he taught us girls,\u201d says Boylan, who now lives behind Champion Hill Golf Course and takes her four-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter to the rink. So far, they have been skating three times this year, including when she brought goodies to the park\u2014something that she plans to do again in the near future..

\u201cIt\u2019s been great. The kids love it. Families have come from all over,\u201d she says, noting that she met people from Chum\u2019s Corners, from Suttons Bay, and from Manistee one afternoon. \u201cPeople are hearing about it being back up and running. People are on Facebook looking for skates. It really brought this community together, right at the right time, when everybody\u2019s had to stay indoors for so long. This gives people, especially young kids, a care-free moment of getting to be themselves. We\u2019ve had lots of giggles, lots of laughs. It\u2019s been great to have that.\u201d 

This article would be remiss to not mention how this community asset is funded.

Beginning in the 2010-11 winter, Dr. Dennis Pace\u2014a local optometrist, community activist, and philanthrope\u2014took it upon himself to raise funds for the Benzonia Ice Rink. Pace had already helped thousands of Benzie kids to play soccer over the course of two decades; he had found the funds and cut through the red tape of creating Benzie County\u2019s first dog park; and this selfless, 6-foot-four gentle giant was not daunted at the idea of trying to raise $5,000 to $7,000 per year for the rink. (We profiled Pace back in September 2015<\/a>, and we also broke our own rule and ran his obituary in November 2017<\/a>; you can find both in our online archives.) 

For instance, during the 2013 and 2014 winters, Pace convinced Jonathan Clark to have L\u2019Chayim Deli in Beulah host a \u201cSkate Swap and Sale\u201d that benefited the Benzonia Ice Rink. A fee of $5 per pair was suggested for swapping; a minimum suggested donation for those who wanted to sell, not swap, was $15. Leftover skates were then donated to Benzie Area Christian Neighbors (BACN). All skate shoppers and swappers were given coupons for 10 percent off at L\u2019Chayim during the event.

\u201cThis event was Dennis Pace, all the way,\u201d says 62-year-old Clark, who grew up in Beulah. \u201cDennis needed a place to do it, so I volunteered our front window. We stacked them up in the window. And it was dirt cheap: a pair of skates for $15!\u201d

Clark adds that, not only did the event raise money, it also helped to get people out onto the ice.

\u201cWe\u2019re big supporters of the rink,\u201d Clark adds. \u201cHell, I skated on the rink, for crying out loud, and that was 50 years ago! It\u2019s a great little treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Village
Academy Park, where the Benzonia Ice Rink is located, is open to the public from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day of the week. This photo was taken at 8 a.m. in late February, just before dawn on an overcast morning; the park has lights for skaters. Photo by Aubrey Ann Parker.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, that fundraising mantle has been taken up by Barb Skurdall (68), who has been on the Benzie County Parks & Recreation Committee for more than a decade. It was almost a year ago when Skurdall first expressed an interest in fundraising, networking, and making connections to get the rink back up and running.\u00a0

Skurdall has been a member of the Benzie Sunrise Rotary Club for more than 10 years, and she remembers when Dennis would come in annually to ask for $500 for the rink. Looking at county treasury records, Skurdall says that the Village of Benzonia and\/or Benzonia Township would normally throw in up to a few thousand dollars, plus electricity for the lights, plus water, plus liability insurance, and a couple of porta-potties. There were also donations from businesses and individuals: some were for bigger amounts\u2014$100, $200\u2014but the majority were smaller donations of $20 or $25.

This year, she says, The Cottage Pros are covering all of the expenses of their own equipment and employee time, just as Rineer\u2019s team did for decades.

\u201cBut if something breaks down\u2014like the water pump from the village, or something\u2014we want to have a fund to just jump in and cover it, not have to wait for the funds to come in,\u201d Skurdall says. So they have created a special account where people can send donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howard adds: \u201cThere\u2019s a pump down underneath, and if that goes bad, they\u2019re not cheap. I know that Jack Rineer bought one and maintained it. So to have some donations saved up for major repairs in the future is important for keeping this going.\u201d 

Skurdall emphasizes that this community asset is used by so many people.

\u201cI haven\u2019t been by there when there hasn\u2019t been someone on it [besides those days that it thawed],\u201d she says. \u201cThe last time that I drove by, it was so cold, but there were three little hockey net courts set up.\u201d

Hockey Puckers<\/strong>
\u201cI have been using the ice rink since before it was in its current location,\u201d says 34-year-old Emery Gyr, who claims to have been on the rink about 75 times each winter when he was growing up. 

Now a busy new father and a young business owner (see our June 2020 Q&A with him in our online archives), Gyr has still been able to find four occasions to get on the ice over the past month. This is the third winter since Gyr and his wife, Liz, moved home to Northern Michigan after living out West\u2014but this is the first year that the rink has been open.

Gyr mostly uses the rink to play hockey, and he works hard to get others to join in pick-up games.

\u201cBut I would go and just skate, if I had the freetime and nobody wanted to play hockey,\u201d he says. 

People of all ages  and abilities show up to the Benzonia Ice Rink to play.

\u201cA few of my friends from growing up; people who have played there as long as I have. A few from our parents\u2019 generation,\u201d Gyr says. \u201cAnd one time this winter, [middle-aged] DeeDee Gorno showed up with friends… She plays on an actual team up in Traverse City. We had eight women, all padded up, full helmet, full gear, ready to play.\u201d

Even after moving out West, Gyr continued to play hockey\u2014and it was actually during this time that he came to realize what a distinctive experience he had had at the Benzonia Ice Rink.

\u201cIt\u2019s uniquely large for a community ice rink. That makes it so that we can have multiple hockey games, like last weekend, we had two separate games going, while people are learning to skate, or figure skaters are also on the ice,\u201d Gyr explains. \u201cEveryone who I\u2019ve ever told about this rink, nobody has this same type of story. Everybody either played on real hockey rinks\u2014with refs, it costs lots of money\u2014or they\u2019re like my dad, who grew up on a little lake.\u201d

Gyr says that it was his father, Jack (also profiled in our Q&A archives, back in 2014<\/a>), who recently made him aware of another nearby hockey game that he is hoping to be invited to. 

Scott Barker (46), his wife, and their four children moved to Benzie County from Wisconsin in 2012. Upon leaving for Michigan, Barker had to strike a deal with his kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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