Fundraisers

Fundraising is an integral part for any non profit organization, or any group for that matter of fact. Here at San Diego Ice Arena, we have one of the best fundraiser programs around. Yes, better than selling candy bars. I sat down and talked with Kammy Sheridan, our head of Groups and Fundraisers, about what makes our program the best:

How long have you been working on fundraisers?

I have been working at the rink since 2005 and have been developing the fundraiser programs since 2006

What is the biggest selling point for our fundraiser program?

Our fundraiser program boasts a 50% profit, directly paid out to your organization. I have never seen anything else that gives 50% back, most programs only are around 20%

That sounds really good! So how does the fundraiser run?

The fundraiser revolves around skating, you pick a day, we give you 100 custom made tickets to sell and then you and your group come skating. If you want more tickets, we definitely can make that happen.

What kind of groups do this fundraiser?

We have all age groups from 8-25 years old. The majority of the groups are high school and college groups/clubs. I’ve seen college sororities, PT groups, elementary schools, and high school key clubs.

When are the better days to hold the fundraiser?

We do these primarily on the weekends; Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Friday during our Teen Meltdown is really popular because we have a snowball fight about half way through the session. The session also has a club like atmosphere with the lights off, disco lights on, live on ice DJ, etc.

Saturday and Sundays are more low key, the session is more geared towards the younger ages groups, so a good for fundraiser for younger kids 8-12. We still have the on ice DJ and they play plenty of games on the ice; it’s still a lot of fun!

On average, how much money would you say it brings in for the customer?

The average customer just works with the initial 100 tickets we give them and on average they bring in at least $50. We’ve definitely had groups bring in a lot more, up to $1,000 off of one fundraiser!

It really is an easy way to make some money and have some fun at the same time

What is included?

We provide you custom made tickets; just let us know 2 colors that you want on there. You get 2.5 hours of ice skating with skate rentals included and a whole lot of memories to be made

Is this low risk?

Very. It is low risk, no deposits with no money down.

This sounds too good, is it easy to sell?

Surprisingly yes, it is very easy to sell. People never think about ice skating in San Diego. That and they don’t know ice rinks exist here, even though we’ve been in the same building since the 70s! When you bring it up, I think it invokes that feeling of something out of their element and they are excited to try a new activity.

Okay, so this is all awesome, 50% profit, ice skating, snowball fights, how do I make a reservation!?

Well it’s simple: You can call me at 858-530-1825 or email me at kammy@sdice.com . You pick the date, provide me the ticket information and that’s it!

Well there you have it, book your reservation now!

Rolling Into Fall/Winter

What an adventurous summer we’ve had. Thank you to all the YMCA’s and Summer Camps who joined us for fun, every day here at SDIA. Congratulations also goes out to the teams who played in our annual Fun In The Sun Hockey tournament. Our SDIA teams brought home Pee Wee A Gold Medal, Bantam B Gold Medal, Squirt B Gold Medal and a Squirt B Silver Medal. Not a bad showing!

Now, I know it may have been a little hectic for all you people use to quiet public sessions and morning freestyle, but ready for the good news? Are you sure…? FALL IS HERE!!! Yes. That means it does quiet down a little during our morning public sessions and freestyle sessions. This also means our schedule changes ever so slightly:

Morning Freestyles revert back to our old schedule:

Add  9:45-10:30a session

Afternoon session is ONLY 2:15-3p

Public Sessions Monday-Friday will be from 11-2p

Pickup Hockey is Canceled on Friday until further notice.

If you have any questions, check out http://www.sdice.com for more information

New Birthday Party Package

Our famous all inclusive party package is changing!

But don’t worry, it’s just ever so slightly. Our outrageous party packages now includes 15 kids instead of 10 and as well a 1/4 sheet cake instead of the small 8″ round. The best part about it all, we have teamed up with O’s American Kitchen (formerly Pat N’ Oscars) as our new food provider. That’s right, you can now add on those delicious breadsticks to your party package! Don’t miss out on our all inclusive party package which still includes 3 pizzas, a salad, cake, ice cream, punch, goodie bags, a personalized party host as well as skating and games for 3.5 hours! Phew! Say that all in one breath…

Reserve your party now as slots fill up quick!

For more information check out our website at sdice.com

Call Me Maybe

Summer is in full swing here at SDIA and we love to have fun. Over the course of a month, footage was shot and compiled of our amazing, energetic and shameless staff. They were eagerly willing to step in front of the camera, not knowing what the end result would be. Well here it is. Help us out, share it, repost it, send it out, we need to go viral!

Birthday Party Extraordinaire

This month we will be highlighting our amazing birthday parties. If you haven’t already seen one in action, you’re surely missing out. Our parties revolve around our public skating sessions on Saturday and Sunday from 1-3pm. Prices include the first 10 kids, 3 pizzas, salad, cake, punch, ice cream, goody bags, present bags…is that enough? Oh, and a personalized party host for each party, we call them Skate Heroes. We even teach the kids to skate, parents too, but no guarantees on triple axels your first time out! As exciting and memorable birthdays are, we want you to be relaxed and enjoy your time with your birthday child, so we take care of everything from the pictures, to entertainment and cleanup; it’s all taken care of. Not convinced yet? We sat down with our superstar party manager Pickle aka Brittany to get her insight on our party extravaganzas

How long have you been doing parties?

 Pickle: I have been managing and hosting parties for the past 6 years

In your eyes, what makes our parties so cool?

P: The experience the birthday child gets is probably the best feeling in the world. Our skate heroes personalize the entire party for the birthday child and focus their attention on them. We make sure the spotlight is on them, but also make sure all the participants are entertained. Don’t worry, we’ll entertain the adults too!

 

If you were a kid, what would be your favorite part of the party?

P: Decorating the cake. We put the names on the cake, but the kids get to decorate their own cakes with sprinkles, gummy worms, icing, the works. 

What if you were a parent?

P: Parents love our parties because they can spend time mingling with the other parents and not have to worry about taking care of the kids. Our skate heroes manage the party from start to finish, from serving food, skating lessons and even the cleanup

How would you describe our Party Hosts in 3 words?

P: Fun, Energetic, AMAZING!!

Any big names celebrities stop by?

P: We recently had Cabana Boy Geoff have his daughter’s party here. A few other names have stopped by in the past as well

What can we look forward to?

P: We are remodeling our Zaney Qub room for our Zaney Parties, this is the private room for our Zaney Party package. We are also in the process of getting new food for all the parties and most recently, we started showing off our On-Ice Live DJ Booth, fully stocked with glow sticks and glasses

Well there you have it. If you have any questions, feel free to call and talk to a friendly staff member and they can walk you through the whole party process. Also check out our Facebook or Website for more information and fun action shots

Renovations and Facelifts

So you may be wondering, why is there so much construction going on in the rink? What’s up with the smell of paint and sawdust? What is going on!?

Well, SDIA is undergoing a major facelift and we are in the midst of giving the rink a new look it hasn’t seen in years. Every year, 30% of our general income is alloted to improvements of the building. This year, we are reimaging the inside with some large murals and displays, as well as updating the paint. According to both CEO Phillip Linssen and GM Gaston Larios, “You will be seeing new images/displays around the rink which will illustrate both the mission of the rink itself and highlights of each separate program (i.e. Figure, Hockey and Novice programs). Each image will consist of participants of a program and words synonomous with our mission, as an ice rink. The colors will stay consistent with our traditional blue and white, with the additon of red to help bring some warmth to the environment” We can’t show you previews quite yet, but the printers are running and the displays are on their way!

Well what can we look forward to?

We have already implemented a few additions to the rink that you may or may not have seen.

Most recently, the parking lot was resurfaced. Every 3 years, we refinish the blacktop and repaint the parking lines.

There is a huge barbeque which has been installed outside in the rear corner of the rink. This is offered to all our programs to add to our family atmosphere. The Hockey and Figure programs have already made use of this facility in hosting monthly parties for any participants and their families.

The Pro Shop even got its own facelift, streamlining many of the ways they display products and adding little tidbits to increase their attention to excellent customer service.

Even our Zamboni is getting cleaned up for the new year. Each Zamboni will be meticulously disassembled, cleaned, painted and reassembled by our own maintenance crew, led by Ricardo.

There is a lot more maintenance and suprises in the works, but stay tuned as we will be talking about our new green initiative and how we contribute to sustainability.

Skate Customization

I’ll be honest with you, skates don’t always come perfect for your foot. I remember skating as a kid, and boy did my feet hurt! Everyone just said to suck it up and it would get better. No one said, “go to your local pro shop and get them worked on”.

And that’s exactly where I am now: sitting in the Pro Shop looking all the skates being worked on. The Shop is a full service shop, not only selling equipment, but taking care of any skate, boot, blade needs you have. So let’s touch on some common issues that people have with their skates, brand new or 10 years old.

“Mommy, it feels tight on my toes” or ”My skates feel too narrow”

I’m sure we’ve all heard this one before. Don’t get me wrong, some times the issue is the skates are getting too small. But before you run out and get new boots, pull the insole out. In a fairly broken in skate, you can see the imprint of where your skater’s foot sits. This gives you a good idea of if the skates are really too small, or if there is still room. If there is still room in the skates, it just means your skater’s toes are hitting the sides of the skate.

There are two ways to fix this. Option #1 We can punch out the skates, which simply puts a small bump on the outside of the boot, giving a little more room for the toes. Option #2 is to do a full stretch.  We simply put the skates on our strecher overnight and this can expand the toes from a D to almost a EEE.

“My foot is slipping in the skate”

This is more or less a sign that it is time to make a visit to the shop to get your skates looked at. Sometimes, the issue is that the heel pocket is wider than the heel itself. What we do in these situations is called a heel pinch. The boot gets heated up in the skate oven, wrapped with a towel and pinched by a wood clamp. This makes the heel pocket narrow and will hold the foot better. In drastic situations, while the skate is still hot, we will stick the skates in a fridge to super-cool all the layers of the skate.

“My new skate hurts”

Majority of new skates have ankle padding that has yet to be broken in. The padding is normally flat and your ankle bones are round so there is a lot of rubbing and a lot of pain. This is also common in other parts of your foot, most commonly your “navicular bone”(inside of your foot, slightly down diagonaly from your ankle bone) and “fifth metatarsal” (outside of your mid-foot). These all vary skater to skater, but a simple boot punch takes care of it all. Boot punches only take a couple minutes and saves you from a lot of pain and discomfort.

Well, there you have it. Some insight on your skates. I’ll touch on blades and sharpenings next time. But for now, if you have any questions come in and see our shop staff who are all professionally trained and can answer any of your questions!

Oldies, but Goodies

So many of you may not know, but back in the day we had hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios play here at our rink. This was dug up from an archive by Mite coach Gary Andreassi.

SDAHA 1977-78 Midgets with Chris Chelios, he is bottom row 3rd from the left.

Top row: from left, Unkown assitant Coach, Head Coach John Mizuk, Lad Morris Goalie, Greg Burns, Todd Verity, Greg Stoike, Mark Verity, Steve Madruga, Dave Ashton, Coach Bob Newton, Unknown Coach.

Bottom row: from left, unknown player, unknown player, Chris Chelios, Tom Mizuk, Tom Deihl, Gary Andreassi, unknown player.

SDIA has been in this location for over 35 years. If you have any good pictures from back in the day, post them on our Facebook page: SDIceArena or email them to Kevin@sdice.com We want to bring back the memories from the good ol’ days!

Ice Skate Fitting Tips

With the big holiday only 13 days away, we know there are a lot of wish lists for new skates so I thought I’d give you some insight on purchasing new skates. This article was written by Scott Noble, with some edits:

Unlike shoes, skates should be a snug fit, tight but not painfully so. The worst thing that a skater can do is purchase skates that are too big. Skates that are a little small can be fixed. Our Pro Shop uses couple of fitting techniques to enlarge skates. These include: punching – a quick process in which a small and very specific portion of the boot is stretched out; and power-stretching – an overnight process where the boots can be widened by at least a full width.

Skates that are too big are almost impossible to fix. Most people think a second pair of socks will help here. On the contrary, wearing an extra pair of socks is one of the worst things you can do in a pair of skates. The extra layers create room between your boot and yout foot, thus allowing your foot to move around, which makes it more likely you are to develop blisters and even spurs on your feet. Most serious skaters never wear socks and even when they do, they wear thin tights no thicker than heavy panty hose would be. Many hockey players and figure skaters forego socks altogether in favor of bare feet. While this ensures a better feel for the ice, it is very hard on your skates. They will stink and actually wear out faster as they soak up all the perspiration from your feet. I prefer a very thin, liner style sock, the Pro Shop sells Swiftwick socks as well as Mondor Knee Highs which work perfectly.

The first and most important rule in buying skates is to never buy a pair that you cannot try on first. As internet shoppers this probably isn’t what you hoped to hear.

Having worked in ice skate retail for over 7 years, I can tell you that it is annoying to have people come in and take up a long period of your time only to tell you they are going to buy the skates on the internet. If you do try skates on at a local shop, you might ask what services they include in the price. Here we provide the 1st initial sharpening and rocker as well as the heat mold and any boot punches for the life time of the skate. This can add up to be an $80 value. Now the price with shipping on the internet isn’t very different. So take the time to come in and try a pair of skates on, see how they feel and see what the shop offers.

When sitting with the boots first on and not laced, they might feel uncomfortably short. Don’t panic. First you should kick back into the boot. Kick the heel of the skate on the floor a couple of times to make sure your heel is settled back. Next lace the skates up and make sure they are tight. The forefoot area should be snug, but not crushing. As you get to where the eyelets start to turn towards the vertical portion of the boot, tighten these up a little tighter. This will pull your heel back into the proper position. When laced and still sitting, you might still feel like the skates are too short. Don’t make your judgment yet. Most boots these days are heat moldable - this is where we put the boot in an oven, as it heats up, the boot softens and molds to your foot when we lace it back up – and yout foot will sit back in the heel pocket even more. Once in a proper skating stride, your toes will curl back as well, giving you added room in the skate.

If you are unsure of the length a good way to check is by simply taking out the insoles of the skate and standing on them. An adult’s toes should come right to the end of the insole. A child who needs room for growth should never have more than about a finger’s width of toe space. This will get them through about a year without having skates so loose that they cannot skate without their ankles bent.

Now the other factors of width and foot shape are a little more abstract. If you have a full service shop like SDIA, (not some online retailer) sales people will be able to recommend skates based on the width of your foot and height of your instep.

Again, make sure that your skates are snug, but not uncomfortable. Pay attention to the fit of your heel, does it move? If it does, try on another pair. Do the laces feel like they are digging in to the top of your feet? Try another pair. Does the forefoot feel loose? Try another pair. Eventually one will likely feel significantly better than the others did. There are a lot of different models of skates, each one uniquely different. Like I said above, come in and try on different skates, it’s the only way you can tell which pair are the ones for you!

Holiday Schedule

Getting ready for the holidays, we will have a few schedule changes we want to let you know about:

Morning Public Sessions

From Monday 12/19/11 thru Friday 12/30/11

Public Sessions are scheduled 11:00am to 2:00pm

 Dance Sessions are cancelled from 12/22 and 12/29

Friday afternoon Pick-up Hockey is cancelled from 12/9th thru 1/6/12

 

Other dates:

· Friday 12/2 Developmental Hockey cancelled (corporate event)

· Friday 12/2 Teen Melt Down cancelled (corporate event)

· Tuesday 12/6 Adult Public Session 7pm to 8pm cancelled for Xmas show practice

· Saturday 12/10 All programs cancelled for our Holiday Show

· Saturday 12/24 Closed at 3pm after Public Session

· Sunday 12/25 CLOSED

· Saturday 12/31 Special end of year Public Session scheduled from 11am to 2pm

· Saturday 12/31 Rink will close at 2pm for private event.

· Sunday 01/01 CLOSED