Saturday night March 5, the Friends of the John T. Wright Arena held its first fund raising skate-a-thon at the Mackay ice rink. The funds raised will go towards the purchase of new bleachers and for after school children’s programming. The event was a tremendous success. Participants and sponsors included students from the Dwight Morrow High School, Janis Dismus Middle School, Moriah School of Englewood, Dwight–Englewood School, the Frisch High School Ice Hockey Team, the North Park Hockey Association and the Bomber Hockey team.
“In June 2013, Englewood children of all ages came to a City Council meeting asking that the City Council re-open the John T. Wright Arena/Mackay ice skating rink after it was damaged by Hurricane Sandy and they explained why the rink was important to them. Over the last two years, the John T. Wright Arena has become a special place in Englewood, a place that has helped bring the entire Englewood community together. After two successful seasons at the rink, this past Saturday was an opportunity for a diverse group of Englewood students and other users of the rink to have fun and give back to the Englewood community at the same time,” said Lisa Wisotsky, President of the Friends of the John T. Wright Arena.
Noah Lerman, an Englewood resident and student at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County said, “It was very fun skating with my friends at the Mackay skate-a-thon. The rink is a special place for my siblings and me because that’s where we all learned how to ice skate. Now I play hockey there all the time. I even got community service hours from my school for participating!” Madeline Sorbanelli, an eighth grader at Englewood’s Janis Dismus Middle School said, “I wanted to do it because I thought it would be fun and I like ice-skating. I thought that by helping with this event I would be able to do what I like doing and give back to my community at the same time. Bringing kids together from different schools is important because they never see each other and this is a good way to bring everyone together and unify the community.” The Frisch Ice Hockey players were enthusiastic participants. “The Frisch Ice Hockey team wanted to give back to the community because the community has supported us tremendously in our inaugural season,” said Eric Zucker.
Two Englewood schools made participation in the skate-a-thon a group community service project. Rabbi Yoni Fein of the Moriah School explained that the new Chesed and Talmud initiative at Moriah has turned the school into a center for community chesed and volunteering. Over 15 Moriah students attended the skate-a-thon to show support and help raise funds. Ezra Csillag, Moriah sixth grader said, “Besides having great fun on a Saturday night skating with my friends, it felt great to raise some money for the arena that I call home.”
The Dwight-Englewood school’s curriculum includes a focus on service learning. “The skate-a-thon was a terrific opportunity for my advisees to do a collective project around community engagement, community space and community building by lending their support for improvements to the local ice rink at Mackay Park,” said Dr. Sherronda Brown, who brought over 20 students from the school on Saturday night to the Arena.
To date, over $2500 has been raised, with more monies pledged. On Tuesday night, March 22 children representing the different schools will have an opportunity once again to address the Englewood Mayor and City Council. This time, they will be on the giving end and have a special opportunity to express their appreciation, present a check and give back to the Englewood community.
