Tiny dressing rooms, ice that won't stay frozen: Why West Lorne, Ont., wants to fix its arena
West Lorne, Ont., pop. 1,300, is vying for the top spot in annual Kraft Hockeyville contest
Imagine eight seven-year-old girls and their parents squeezing into a dressing room built for four, squished together like sardines as they try to tie skates and buckle helmets.
When they take to the ice, they better hope it's not a nice day out, because whenever the front door opens, the warm air melts the ice on one end, causing puddles and sometimes halting games.
Welcome to West Lorne, Ont., pop. 1,300, where the 55-year-old West Lorne Arena is the hub of the community but also in desperate need of upgrades.
"We've been getting record numbers of players this year, we're growing at a rate that we aren't able to keep up with," said Chelsea Vergeer, who is on the West Lorne Minor Hockey Association board of directors and has two kids who play in the arena.
West Lorne is the last community standing in Ontario in the annual national contest called Kraft Hockeyville. The winning community gets $250,000 in arena upgrades and the chance to host a pre-season NHL game.
Lucan won the honour in 2018, and West Lorne is hoping to bring the title back to southwestern Ontario. The community's arena is a real hub, Vergeer said.
"Hockey is amazing. You don't have to play it to love it or to watch it," she said. "We've got grandparents who come out to watch kids, parents who come out, and for us, we don't have a ton of extra time so we see our friends at the arena, we see cousins.
"It just brings people together. It's a small town and there's not a whole lot going on, so if there's a hockey game there are people in the stand."
Being in the Top 4 spot and the only Ontario community left standing has West Lorne buzzing, said Kevin Summers, the president of the West Lorne Minor Hockey Association.
"It's been incredible. I got my hair cut today and there were people dropping off flyers, people stopping me in the street and chatting about the details, congratulating me. It's been non-stop the last few days," Summers said.
The entire community wants the arena's issues to be fixed, he added.
"Our main entrance for the facility comes straight into our ice surface, so in September and April, March, it puts a large strain on our compressor system, so we see a drastic decline in the quality of the ice surface because of that," Summers said.
There are four dressing rooms in total, plus a gender-neutral room that's built for four players but often used by eight girls and their parents to get ready for the ice.
"We're really kind of doubling what our dressing rooms are designed for at this point," Summers said.
West Lorne is up against communities in Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba. Voting opens on March 31 at 9 a.m.
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