Hello, my name is Keith Bates and I am one of the co-founders of the Constableville Youth Hockey & Skating Club located in the Tug Hill village of Constableville, NY. Just under a month ago, we decided to embark on a mission to develop an ice sports organization for the area youth through a partnership with the village of Constableville and the nonprofit group Constableville for Tomorrow to provide a Learn to Skate Program, Figure Skating and Youth Hockey programs at no cost to our participants and their families.

For those of you who have been involved in ice sports, the equipment and start-up costs can be very costly, especially for those living in a predominantly rural agriculture region, which would severely limit the number of children who would be able to participate or even be exposed to the amazing benefits that come with team sports such as figure skating and hockey.

After the founders presented our idea to the community and gained approval for use of our well-maintained covered pavilion municipal ice rink, we held our first-ever registration event, and to our surprise, we successfully registered over 60 children to our program! Despite a very successful equipment donation drive, we are still in need of equipment that we will need to purchase, as well as hope to provide some capital improvements to our current skating facility, including ice management systems & warming rooms/locker rooms to allow for participants to safely dress for their programs, as are region routinely sees heavy snow and subzero temperatures.

We think that we have found a great option to allow our area youth (which is open to children in not only the village of Constableville but all surrounding towns and villages) to explore new sports, keep fit during the cold winter months, assist in building character, ability to work on a team, improve self-esteem and overall have fun!

If you can donate anything at all to our cause, we would be eternally grateful!

Sincerely,

Constableville Youth Hockey & Skating Club founders, parents and participants