Residents take to the ice at Chevy

By Denise Dick

The holiday skate drew between 200 and 300 people.

YOUNGSTOWN — It was 2-year-old Phillip Bowser Jr.’s and big sister Alana’s first time on ice skates.

Phillip Jr. skated with his dad, Phillip Sr., keeping a tight grip on his son. Alana, 7, skated alongside her father.

Mom, Rhonda, watched from the sides.

“My sister was coming with her two girls” and invited them along, Rhonda Bowser said.

It was Holiday Skating Time at the Chevrolet Centre on Sunday evening. The event was sponsored by Kidskate and the Skating Club of Greater Youngstown.

Alana said she enjoyed getting out on the ice, but she’s undecided about taking lessons.

Maria Koman, club skating director, estimated that between 200 and 300 people came in from the freezing weather outside to skate on the ice inside. The event also offered free lessons for beginning skaters.

“All of our rental skates are gone,” Koman said, adding that the club had 200 pairs available.

Attendees could also bring their own skates to hit the ice.

“This is a great turnout,” Koman said.

The public skate followed the club’s Christmas On Ice show at the center.

Sunday’s event also offered club members the opportunity to use the Chevy Centre, she said.

“People in Youngstown don’t know how lucky they are to have this,” the Poland woman said.

Quinn Shaw, assistant skating director, said the club includes between 60 and 70 members of all ages.

“Skating is something you can do your whole life — when you’re really young and when you’re well past 70,” she said.

Shaw, who formerly skated competitively, started skating at 2. More information about the club is available at www.skatingytown.com.

Koman said it’s also a great activity for families to do together.

It was a family event for the Malagise family of Chippewa Township, Pa. The seven family members came to watch a friend perform in the Christmas On Ice show and stayed to skate.

Kristen Malagise said she skates recreationally and her children skate for hockey.

She and her husband, Craig, brought their children, Evi, 9; John, 8; and twins Jarrod and Anthony, both 4; and their nephew, Michael Morelli, 6.

Evi, who’s been skating for two years, says she enjoys the sport.

“It’s a great family activity,” Kristen Malagise said. “It’s the only thing I can do with my 4-year-olds and my 8- and-9-year-olds.”

Nicole Thompson, 14, of Cortland, also came to the Chevy Centre to watch the Christmas show and stayed to skate.

“I’m not a very good skater,” she chuckled, coming off of the ice. “I can’t even roller blade.”

But she said she had fun.

The Christmas show was a family Christmas outing gift for members of the Alcorn family.

“We started about five years ago to go on Christmas outings together instead of giving presents,” Rick Alcorn, of Youngstown, said.

The idea was to visit a place or participate in an activity family members hadn’t done before. One year they visited the Children’s Museum of the Mahoning Valley. Another year they took in a Steelhounds game.

“The kids had every toy imaginable; money seems impersonal; we tried savings bonds, but that’s kind of a boring gift,” Alcorn said.

The holiday outings are an effort to establish lasting memories, he said. Alcorn, his wife, Anita Chen, and their daughter, Sharon Alcorn, 2, were joined by Rick’s parents, Rich and Carol Alcorn, and his nephew and niece, Ryan and Emma Crissman, 12, and 8, respectively, all of Lordstown, in enjoying the show first.

Emma and Ryan then sped around the ice while the adults watched from the stands.

“I may go out on the ice on New Year’s Eve at First Night Youngstown,” Rick Alcorn said.