Thursday, June 24, 2010

Please help me out!

My dear few blog readers, I'm in need of your help.
The Piece County Council is closing down my skating rink. The ice rink is located in Sprinker Recreation Center in Pierce County, which hosts a variety of different activities, including Zumba, Yoga, Ballet, Karate, dog obedience classes, Church meets, Tennis, Hockey and Figure Skating, as well as many others.
I know skaters who have skated as long as ten years at Sprinker. I've only skated for two; I love it. What about these people who've dedicated their lives to this artful sport? The families that come to skate instead of sitting in front of the T.V., the seinior citizens who stay fit by playing tennis,and the kids who stay out of the streets because of hockey. If they take away Sprinker, then there's no other place to skate. People will be put out of jobs, into the streets, and children who've been skating all of their lives will have their dreams shattered.

The skating rink is the main problem, with the rusty, unstable, dangerous roof, as well as other problems. The whole center is in disrepair, and it's gotten so bad that it's being closed in October. The council just wants to shut it down instead of fixing it, even though plans for rennovation have been in place for years. They have the funds, but don't want to use them on Sprinker.
The most common argument I've heard against remodeling Sprinker, is that "people don't want to spend extra tax dollars on a select group of elitists" and that "if you want to skate, move somewhere that has a rink". I'm not taking that. They should come see the "elite" little four year-olds having a blast in their beginning group lessons. People drive a long way to get to Sprinker, and the closest rink besides that is Kent.

What we (people who want Sprinker remodeled) want is for the Council to get moving and give us a place to do our activities while they fix our rec center! We hope that if we make enough noise then the Council will reconsider! I attended a rally yesterday and we got media attention, which is great. The next move is to attend the council meeting. It would be earlier, but one of the council members is on vacation.

Help save Sprinker! Show support by emailing, phoning or writing to a council member, let them know that this is not okay! I know that most of y'all are on Facebook. Just join this group and add to the numbers. Check out Friends Of Sprinker. For more information about the problems with the center and the Council, see here, here, here and here.

~Sophia

1 comment:

Stephanie Ann said...

I am so sorry! I will definitely check out those pages and try to help.