PORT ANGELES — If you’re looking for something active to do with family, the Winter Ice Village has been the place to be.
“Last year was a record year for participation for the rink, and this year, we’re ahead of that by almost 10 percent, and that’s the number of skaters, which is also the same thing as gross revenue,” Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marc Abshire said.
The village hasn’t just been hopping with skaters. The location is operated by volunteers, and Abshire said it’s been difficult for volunteers to find empty slots available to donate their time.
“It’s pretty neat to see,” he said.
The Winter Ice Village, at 121 W. Front St. in downtown Port Angeles, is open from noon to 9 p.m. every day, including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The village’s last day will be Jan. 5.
The cost to participate is $10 for children 3 to 12, $15 for those 13 to 19 and $20 for adults 20 and older. The cost for seniors 60 and older as well as for active military members is $10. The ticket to skate is good for the full day, too.
“It’s free to enter the village,” Abshire said. “A lot of skating villages like ours charge an admission fee, but you don’t have to pay anything to enjoy the venue and the village.”
Everything that’s sold at the snack shack is $2, and people are welcome to watch the skaters from covered bleachers for free.
At its busiest, the village has seen between 150 and 200 skaters, but that’s “pretty crazy,” Abshire said.
“Most times there will be less than 100 at a time,” he said. “It’s the skates available for renting that limit how many people are on the ice.”
Despite frequently rainy weather the past few weeks, Abshire said the stream of traffic at the rink has been steady.
“The ice is covered, so the rain doesn’t affect it, and people have been coming out to enjoy it,” he said. “The best time to go down there is in the early evening when it’s just starting to get dark because all of the lights are on and it looks really good.”
The village also has many places available for “super fantastic photo ops,” Abshire said.
The steady attendance of volunteers to run the village is how the chamber has been able to keep costs so low, Abshire said.
“In addition to the volunteers taking up a lot of the slots, we’ve also had a larger number of organizations signing up for a takeover where they come over for a half a day, or even just for a shift, and their organization takes over all of the volunteer slots for that time period, and that’s been helping us out a lot this year,” Abshire said. “It’s been mostly nonprofits, but also government departments and businesses. That’s been going really well this year.”
Abshire described the Winter Ice Village as “pretty neat.”
“If you want to see a bunch of kids smiling and not looking at their phones, come down to the Winter Ice Village,” he said. “Tons and tons of kids having a good time and not looking at their phones. It’s pretty neat.”
This season, the chamber offered three skating lessons and each one was sold out, so it is looking to add more lessons for beginners next year and also may add intermediate lessons.
For more information, go to wintericevillage.org.
To see a livestream of the rink, go to skatecam.org.
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
