Kathy Cox is executive director of the Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena Inc., the nonprofit group that operates the District of Columbia’s only year-round ice skating rink. About this time of year, the rink, on Ely Place Southeast on National Park Service property, gets crowded with hockey, speed skating, public skating and the Kids on Ice community program.
Is this the rink’s busiest time of year?
It is, primarily because we’re in the thick of both hockey and speed-skating season. They both skate from September through February.
Is D.C. Public Schools a regular user of the rink?
The majority of our kids are D.C. residents. They’re not all public school kids; some go to private school. And we have a smattering of kids from Virginia and Maryland. But our biggest partnership is with the public schools.
Does the rink draw a diverse crowd?
People think of it as an elite, expensive sport, but in fact everybody loves it. We have hockey teams that are coed. We have hockey teams that have mixed racial and economic backgrounds. We have the Capitol Hill crowd and we have more well-to-do people along with the folks from Ward 7 and 8. The sport is the equalizer. The kids don’t care; they just go out and have fun.
Are there plans to expand the arena?
Our facility has one sheet of ice. And we’d like to add a second, and thereason is we’re at capacity. We’d like to add more skating time, and we don’t have the ice to do it. We’ve been in discussion with the National Park Service for several years, but it’s a slow process.
How are you funded?
Almost half of the budget is earned income from ice rentals and the rest I raise. We are D.C.’s only ice rink and the region’s only community skating rink with free programs, and we’re always looking for support.
