|
Ice Painting Challenge 2003 ResultsIn 2003, the District of Sechelt hosted the first-ever Ice Painting Challenge on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia Canada. Although a record snow fell that day, more than 80 people from ten community teams were at the heart of the challenge and gathered at the rink to make ten huge paintings on the ice in less than four hours. The weather was wicked, the lights low, the sound muffled, but the spirit was high, the paintings .. awesome! The performances surprising and wonderful. And -- demand for the 2nd Ice Painting Challenge next year! Against a backdrop of the worst snowstorm in years, with buses
and cars in ditches along the coast, doors of the Sunshine Coast
Arena opened to over 350 attending
the first-ever Ice Painting Challenge on
New Marketplace IGA team Not Just Yellow Snow skated on with the IGA flag, two aboriginal teams, (Phoenix and The Sechelt Nation) The District of Sechelt, The Town of Gibsons, an old hockey players team called The Rusty Cranks, a young girls team No Brothers!, high schoolers Ice Ice Babys, a group of artists, Tsunami and Women’s Hockey all had their moment at center ice.
|
All content © Gord Halloran. May not be reproduced without express written permission. contact : hickshalloran@dccnet.com • 604.886.3634 |
Year’s Eve, 2003. Eighty-some team members from ten teams waited behind
the glass in full team regalia (their decorated jerseys) to
skate onto the ice with their flags for the opening parade of the teams. Twenty
members of The Coast String Fiddlers played lively tunes on a stage at center
ice while teams skated on to an excited audience of over 300 people -- all
ages! Kids of all sizes and their parents, grandparents and other visiting
relatives
and friends sat in freezing temperatures with coats, teuks and gloves to watch
the proceedings. 
Performances ( 5 Minute Max) ranged from a video presentation,
to hip hop dances, to poems, recitals and light shows. A choreographed
figure skating
performance
included members from all teams. At halftime a youth improvisation group
Decent Criminals performed in-the-moment comedy upstairs. Finally audience
members
were invited to stand around the edges of the rink while Phoenix chanted
a friendship
dance. Everyone held hands and skated onto the ice. Audience favorite was
"Tsunami" a wave/galaxy.
Staff at the arena were so pleased with the paintings, that
they left them in the ice through January.