Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
MARILYN ANDERSON, Ontonagon Rotary treasurer, presents a check for $800 to Jason Clinesmith, president of the Ontonagon Amateur Hockey Association. The money was raised through the Rotary Log Race during the Ontonagon Labor Festival for the Skates for Kids project. From left, are: Dick Lambert, Log Race chairman, Anderson, Clinesmith and Shannon Clinesmith, treasurer of the OAHA.
ONTONAGON - The Ontonagon Rotary Club Wednesday presented the Ontonagon Amateur Hockey Association a check for the "Skates for Kids" program at the recreation facility.
Jason Clinesmith, president of the hockey association, and Shannon Clinesmith, treasurer, accepted $800 as the proceeds of the Rotary log sale during the Ontonagon Labor Festival.
The Clinesmiths said the skates will be purchased and rented free to skaters using the rink.
The pair explained the new efforts to keep the recreation facility open for public use.
Jason Clinesmith added the hockey association leases the building from the village of Ontonagon. The village pays $15,000 toward the operation and the OAHA pays the rest of the expenses.
Jason Clinesmith said the group has made a concerted effort to bring all users, hockey, figure skating and open skating families under the one umbrella and it has been successful. He said it is important the partnership be successful because if the hockey association is not successful in operating the facility, the village indicated it would be used for storage.
Shannon Clinesmith and Stacey Somero of the association attended an educational session of the USA Hockey Association in Traverse City recently. "They marveled that a group as small as ours is still alive and cited us as the hardest working group, with so much community involvement," Shannon Clinesmith said.
She said Ontonagon applied for a grant and received $2,500 for recruiting, especially skaters ages 2 through 12. The grant includes free jerseys for the youngest, 12 free equipment bags, 25 free sticks and other tokens.
Representatives of the hockey association will be at the Ewen Log Jamboree with flyers in an effort to recruit players and skaters countywide.
There will be "Try Hockey for free days" Nov. 8 and Feb. 21, where kids can play hockey for fun to determine if they would like to join a hockey group.
The USA fee for each hockey player is $45, but it will be waived for new members.
The group is also interested in finding people who would sponsor a player.
Jason Clinesmith said there are hopes for other activities for kids to use the recreation facility in the summer and he wants to continue the use of the building by outside groups. He hopes to be able to get grant funding for new lighting and electrical work. "We can save 60 percent of what we now pay with more efficient electrical upgrades," he said.
