Come celebrate with us at this year’s 62nd ice show featuring Gary Beacom. In 1983 and 1984, Beacom won the silver medal at the Canadian Championship behind Brian Orser, and in his professional career, he won the 1988 World Professional Championships. Having Gary Beacom as our guest skater will make for an enjoyable and exciting show this year.

Our show takes many volunteers who spend countless hours working together to prepare. The show is a production with lights, spotlights, ice painting, curtains and much more to make this very memorable for all our skaters and audience members. The times of the shows are on Saturday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 24 at 2:00 p.m., taking place at the Thorold Community Arena at 70 Front Street, North. The cost for the ice show is $5 per person, however anyone four years and under may enter for free. For tickets and information please call Kim at 905-384-1871 or Amelia at 905-227-4181.

The board of directors would like to thank all of the businesses that have helped contribute over the years to our ice shows in order to make them successful. We would like to give a special thank you to the following businesses: Henderson’s Pharmasave, Niagara Trailers, and Air Liquide Hamilton for their support in allowing us to be able to have Gary Beacom at this year’s show. Without them this would not be possible. Thank you again to all our supporters. We look forward to seeing you there.

T.F.S.C. was founded in 1951 with the founding name of Merritton Figure Skating Club. The founding group, were skaters, and parents of skaters that had been members of the Winder Club of St. Catharines.

The reason Thorold started the Skating Club with Merritton’s name was that the provincial paper of Thorold pumped brine to the rink so artificial ice was formed in the Town of Thorold before Merritton.

Merritton Figure Skating Club’s first board consisted of Merritton, Thorold and some St. Catharines residents.

This was a community-funded club; with help coming from Hayes Steel, (now known as Hayes Dana) providing costumes for their first carnival and then the Kiwanis Club of Thorold who sponsored the next four years.

There were 40 skaters that trained with Mr. and Mrs. F.A. Proctor for their next carnival.

The year 1952-53 meant another name change to Merritton-Thorold Figure Skating Club. This time Thorold was added to the name, as Thorold was the home ice location.

The Club continued training skaters and having yearly carnivals, before another name change in 1953- 54 to the Linwell Skating Club. This name was formed from Lincoln and Welland Counties, which the skating club was part of.

By 1956, the Linwell Skating Club still owed Hayes Steel for their support, so the club gave them a Sunday of ice time each year to for their children’s Christmas party. This continued for a number of years, in addition to memberships being given to the employees. This helped increase the membership enrollment.

In the following years, Linwell continued to have their annual ice show and hired a few different professional coaches to train the skaters. By the late 60’s early 70’s the club had grown to 500 members. In 1972, Linwell Skating Club had its first skater qualify for the national competition (Canadians) at the novice level, in Lonna Jorgenson, who placed ninth in Canada.

Linwell helped fundraise for another arena in 1972 and by 1974 they were operating out of two rinks. 1974 was another great year with a new ice surface and its first gold medalists in figure and freeskate in 23 years, Kathy Pizzacalla, and the first in the last 10 years in the Niagara Peninsula. The previous gold medalists in dance years before included Berry Ann Lusk and Carol Ann McSween.

The years 1976 and 1977 brought about the retirement of two very important members of the skating club in Mr. and Mrs. F.A. Proctor who had over 50 years (combined) of volunteering experience in the skating club, but the membership continued to range between 400 and 500 skaters. In 1978, the Club had carnival numbers compete in a Precision Skating Competition (now called synchronized skating) in Rochester, NY, thus bringing the first precision skating to the Niagara area.

The Niagara Invitational Precision Competition was founded in 1979 by a group of interested parents and skating enthusiasts of L.S.C. This competition brought teams from Ontario, New York, Ohio and New Jersey and the L.S.C. hosted this competition for five years.

In 1980 the club became incorporated to Linwell Skating Club Inc. In 1983-84 there was another major name change, which made people realize geographically where L.S.C. was located and called home. Thorold Figure Skating Club Inc. was born and this also gave recognition to the City of Thorold for its support.

All of our programs are taught by professional coaches, certified through the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) and Skate Canada. They are assisted on the ice by senior skaters who volunteer to serve as amateur coaches after completing their own coaching seminars. Group and private lessons are available for children wishing to learn to skate or improve their skills in either figure skating or power skating.  Programs include: Parent & Tot, CanSkate, Skating Skills for Hockey, Power Skating, STARSkate and Synchronized Skating.

A highlight of the season is the annual ice show. This year, “I Need a Vacation” was presented to a full and appreciative audience and featured all of the skaters in the club, from the youngest three-year-olds to Gold Level skaters and the Ontario Championship PreNovice Synchronized Skating Team, Revolution, also based in Jordan. In addition to the group numbers and solos, the event also includes the presentation of the annual awards.

JSC is home to a pre-novice level synchronized skating team.  This past year the team consisted of 18 members ranging in age from 11 to 19 years old.  The girls work hard throughout the season practicing twice a week for a total of four and a half hours.  They are very dedicated to the sport.  This dedication has resulted in many successes including Ontario Regional Champions for the past two years and bronze medalists at the Ontario Winter Games.  We are always interested in new members. If you think you might like to join our team, please contact our team manager, Barbara Sainty (bsainty@brocku.ca) for more details.

A board of volunteer directors, elected at the annual meeting, administers club business.

More information

For more information please email jordanskatingclub@yahoo.com or visit our website www.jordanskatingclub.com

Hannah first put on skates at age three and a half at a family skate in January of 2001. She stubbornly set out on her own, intent to keep up with her older siblings and, with a few falls, was skating the length of the ice within the hour.  Watching her determination, that October we enrolled her at the Jordan Skating Club in the CanSkate program.

In Hannah’s first year she passed the first three CanSkate badges and got through half of the fourth.   Wendy Skirrow, Hannah’s mother recalls spending numerous afternoons at the arenas in Beamsville and Jordan for Parent-Tot skates, practicing skills, and having fun.  At the age of five Hannah began private lessons with Evelyn LeBoeuf at Jordan who entered her first competition 2003. Hannah loved being the center of attention in the limelight on the ice and, of course, wearing skating dresses.

Hannah has loved skating in Jordan. Over the years some of the many highlights have included: skating in carnivals (which she loves), good friendships, skating synchro (for five years), P.A for CanSkate and Development Synchro (five years), and Gold Medal dinners.  Hannah now skates five days a week in Jordan, Hamilton, and Grimsby.  In 2009 Hannah started skating with Jen Hoadley and is currently coached by Jen, Evelyn, Bryce Davison, and Cristalle Cranfield.

Current accomplishments for Hannah include: Triple Gold Medalist: Gold Skills(Oct/09), Dances(Feb/10), Interpretive(Dec/10) Freeskate (Feb/12), Pre-Novice Competitive Test (Mar/11), Provincials 2011 (Sr. Bronze Women) 5th place, Provincials 2012 (Jr. Silver Women) 1st place.

Hannah’s focus has been setting small goals and accomplishing them one by one.  She has worked hard these past few years learning new spins and working at landing five double jumps. She has remained focused throughout this skating season with the goal of returning to Provincials. She has competed in eight competitions this past year for her Freeskate solo and Interpretive solo, earning eight medals and qualifying for Provincials at the STARSkate Championships in Kitchener with a second place overall finish.  She competed at the Ontario Trillium Championships in North Bay in March where, relaxed and focused, she skated to a season’s best in her Freeskate program winning first place.  Next season Hannah will be skating in the Pre-Novice Competitive division.

Hannah has had to pass up on some interests and extra-curricular activities in order to pursue her skating.  She is, however, involved with school choir, church youth group, track & field and plays travel and indoor soccer.  She looks to Kurt Browning, Joannie Rochette, and Patrick Chan for inspiration in her skating.
Her future plans after high school include possibly auditioning for Disney on Ice, attending university and becoming a skating coach herself.  She dreams of one day being in the Olympics

Hannah loves to skate. Her advice to others would be to love what you do, practice hard, continue to learn new things and have fun. Skating can be a life-long passion.

Dream big, work hard, have a passion for your sport and have fun! Never stop believing in your dreams.

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