Drop by the Carlisle Arena any Monday or Wednesday evening, and you’ll run into a few members of the village’s Optimist Club. And it’s been that way since the beginning, more than 50 years ago.
The club marked the anniversary of the opening of the community’s artificial ice surface this week; an inaugural charity hockey game was played to celebrate the new rink on Jan. 14, 1975. Families attending the Optimists’ popular Learn to Skate program this week stopped by to snack on cupcakes and check out a display that shows the history of the arena.
The plan for the rink actually went back a few years prior to that first hockey game and evolved through the following years, noted Rob O’Brien, who has been an Optimist for 38 years and is the current skating coordinator.
“In 1958 is when we got our charter, then in 1966 we bought land and gave it to the Town,” he said.
Over the next few years, the club operated an outdoor rink on the lower part of the 12-acre lot; by 1971 they had added a cement-block building behind Memorial Hall that served as a change room. They had also launched the skating program, which has been teaching kids the basics ever since. In 1971, 92 kids were signed up; this year, 125 have enrolled.
It was clear from the start that the rink could be a hub for the community. The club proposed a plan at town council to build an outdoor artificial ice surface (enclosed by walls only) at a cost of $133,000, with the Optimists kicking in $25,000. The new surface would be in the upper part of the lot, where the arena sits today.
When that was completed, the charity hockey game took place. O’Brien notes that some Optimists who played that day, such as Jake Postma and Paul Alderson, are still active members of the club.
But the group wasn’t done yet. Just a year later, they took a proposal to council to add a roof and community centre at the site at a cost of $350,000. The Optimists would donate $50,000. That changed, however, with a windfall: the project received a Wintario grant of $104,000, which was matched by $104,00 in fundraising by the Optimist Club. Construction of the new arena and community centre got underway in 1977.
Optimist Club president Leslie Elaschuk marvels at the commitment and dedication it took to tackle a project of that size.
“I'm amazed. I know how hard it is for us to raise $20,000 or $30,000,” she said. “I can't believe how much money they raised, especially considering that $30,000 then was probably like raising $100,000 now. And they were able to do that in a small community.
“Really, the community helped build this because they're the ones that were donating. So this arena belongs to the whole community.”
