Swansea Figure Skating Association

The Swansea Figure Skating Association began in 1993 at its present location in west Toronto. By 1995, the original founders had moved on, leaving the program in serious jeopardy. No-one involved wanted to see things fall apart, and so Terry Burke, Tamara Shena, and Margaret and Ron Rew called a meeting of interested parents to see what could be done. A good turn-out at this first meeting made it clear that there was plenty of interest in saving the program.

The four new committee members set about interviewing skating coaches, eventually hiring Jennifer Geddes and Tanya Cashman. In the early years SFSA had only 2 instructors and two hours of ice time per week with about 60 Participants. As interest continued to grow, it was obvious more time was needed to accommodate the larger student numbers, and with help from Dave Maxwell (Swansea Community Recreation Centre), the program expanded to 3 hours in 1997 and eventually 120 members.

The year 2001 marked another transition for SFSA. Terry, who eventually came to be the sole operational volunteer, decided to step down in March of 2001, and it was left to others to pick up the reins. At first the instructors thought they might try to organise it themselves. However combining teaching duties with management activities would have been a heavy burden. So it fell to a group of adult participants to connect and develop a strategy to save the program. Again a meeting was called, and with the help of Terry, who offered much needed advice, the organisation made preparations to continue in the fall of 2001.

Any transition has its difficulties, and it took a while for the new management volunteers to learn the ropes. But in time things started to take on a new look. A student volunteer program was introduced in 2001, helping out the instructors by giving the less experienced younger students more personal attention. In 2002 a phone hotline and mail registration were added. The snack bar, run by Terry, had been shut down, but by 2003 a hot chocolate & snack stand was set up by the student volunteers. Before Christmas in 2003, David LeBer approached the committee volunteers and offered to design a website for SFSA without charge.

Over the years we have received numerous complements from parents and students about the program, both how well it is run and the low fees. Any community program relies heavily upon many people, and it is a great tribute to all the hard work from the volunteers and especially the instructors, both past and present, that the SFSA has achieved such tremendous success.

Hopefully SFSA will continue to be a place of learning, community connection, and fun for many years to come.