About SKATIUM

The purposes of SKATIUM INC are to promote, develop, construct, operate, manage and administer community sports facilities and programs within the Mad River Valley, either as independent projects or as adjuncts to units of our local government.

SKATIUM INC wholly owns and operates an open-air ice rink on 5.4 acres in the heart of the commercial downtown district of Waitsfield, VT. It has been utilized every season over the past 30 years (except 2020 due to the pandemic) by individual members of the surrounding six towns (Warren, Waitsfield, Moretown, Fayston, Duxbury, and Waterbury), the Harwood Union Unified School District athletic programs, as well as local sports clubs. 

At our facility we have held a variety of sports instructional activities including ice hockey instruction and leagues run by Hockey USA, a Learn-to-Skate Figure Skating program led by a certified figure skating instructor. Our facility has held exhibitions run by professional and accredited programs such as the Litz Figure Skating Program from Lake Placid. Exhibition hockey games have been organized by Alumni NHL hockey players, which provided our community youth exposure to a higher level of instruction and play. We have an alliance with Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports and provide no-charge ice time to the Vermont Pioneers Sled Hockey Organization. 

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As a community resource we try to charge as little as possible just to cover our facility operational costs such as water, electricity, heat, and our part-time rink manager. Even so, we rely heavily on volunteers. The operations of SKATIUM Inc are managed by a 100% volunteer board of Directors who meet once per month for 2 hours. The organization has only one paid employee who works part-time during the winter leading the ice making crew and managing the office and skate rental shop. Each viable weekend when the weather cooperates, we email our volunteer list to support our ice making operation, and members of the board will rotate support for our rink manager in the office, especially during busy holiday weekends. 

Due to the open air nature of the current facility and the fact that we do not have a refrigerated concrete ice surface, activities currently only occur during the winter when weather is suitable to make ice. In winter 2022-23, the facility was open for significantly fewer days than our normal period of operation.

Our goal for the future is to meet our fundraising targets from private capital sources, and obtain Federal and State grants this winter to fund the revitalization of our aging facility, which will enable us to support additional sports and recreational activities year-round. Our ultimate dream would be to raise enough capital to fund an endowment that would fully pay for our annual operating costs through dividends, enabling us to offer the facility completely free of charge to community members in need.