Eccles Ice Center raising awareness for ice skating scholarship
October 22nd, 2015 Posted in Business, Sports
A scholarship aimed at helping less fortunate children learn to skate at the George S. Eccles Ice Center in North Logan has garnered just one applicant so far this year — and the center’s leadership team is hoping to change that.
The Sheri Lynn Becker Memorial Scholarship, available for children ages three to five, covers the entire $45 fee for a five week Learn-to-Skate program that teaches fundamental skating skills. Last year five children applied for the scholarship. This year’s application period will remain open through Dec. 31.
For the first time the ice center is advertising the scholarship on its website and displaying a plaque in its lobby that reads: “For her tireless work and dedicated efforts on behalf of the George S. Eccles Ice Center in the capacity of Board of Trustees President and board member, as a dedicated hockey mom and hockey club chairperson, her legacy lives on through the Sheri Lynn Becker Memorial Scholarship Fund.”
“We think people just don’t know about it and that’s why we are trying to get it out there, because it can really help families who don’t have the money,” said Jakki Hansen, a skating school administrator.
“We are continuing to grow the scholarship because it has allowed people to skate at the Eccles Ice Center who would not normally be able to afford it,” said Floyd Naegle, the executive director of the ice center. “Some of the children who are taught in this program go on to competitive figure skating and hockey, so we know we are making a difference.”
The scholarship fund was created four years ago after the death of Sheri Becker, an active member of the ice center’s hockey program. Upon her death, Becker’s husband, friends and the ice center community came together to create a fund in her honor that would help local children learn to skate.
“Sheri’s husband and I talked after her passing and decided that a Learn-to-Skate scholarship was the best way to honor her memory because it would open up opportunities in hockey and figure skating for young children,” Naegle said. “Sheri was involved in Sky View High School hockey and the Eccles Ice Center figure skating programs, so she would have wanted to help out children pursuing either path.”
Natalie Deaver, Anna Tuckett, Cynthia Dixon, Alix Zelener, Mark Rosa and Janessa Fillingim contributed to this report.
– mdl
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