Many local hockey players and skaters have gone months without stepping foot on the ice due to COVID-19, but that ice-olation is soon to come to an end. The City of Estevan is bringing back two of their popular on-ice programs after a months-long hiatus and that's not the only good news for local skaters. 

Both noon hockey and parent-tot skate are scheduled to return to Affinity Place on October 1, and because both are sponsored this year, neither one will cost skaters anything. Even those without leisure centre memberships will be able to enjoy the ice for free.

"We're looking forward to having parent-tot and noon hockey starting on October 1," said program manager Erin Wilson. "That program will run hopefully without any glitches until the end of March. Noon hockey and parent-tot will both be sponsored, so that means it will be free to the public."

This will be the first time ever that noon hockey has been sponsored, thanks to Southeast Tree Care. Parent-tot skate will be free to the public as well thanks to the Strippers hockey team, which Wilson hopes will increase attendance for both programs. 

"It's a funny year to be having sponsorship and wanting to increase the numbers," she said, "because we hear so much about trying to decrease them. But we also want to make sure that we're taking care of our community members, and this is a very generous donation to help make it accessible."

Wilson added that in a tough year this would hopefully remove some accessibility barriers to anyone who might be struggling with money. Aside from the free entrance, noon hockey players, in particular, might not notice too much different from the same skates they went to in February before the city was forced to shut them down. 

"With noon hockey, it tended to be a program that any users did sort of come in quickly and leave quickly," she said. "So they may not find it's too different for them with their schedule. But we don't want individuals coming too early and we certainly can't have them lingering after. It's a get in and get on the ice quick and head home or back to work."

Wilson added the parent-tot skate will have dressing room assignments according to spacing so parents could still tie their kids skates. They also will keep the two programs to opposite sides of the dressing room corridor. They will ask users to sign in when they get there at the information desk in case there is a need for contact tracing.