The circus came to 100 Mile House this weekend during the 100 Mile Skating Club’s year-end Carnival Show.
Hundreds of South Cariboo residents came out to watch 64 skaters show off the skills and routines they’ve spent the last winter honing, all dressed up as lions, clowns, ringmasters, strongmen and more. For Cindy Mardyn, the club’s skating director, and Rachel Hunt, the club’s coach, the night was a huge success for everyone on the ice.
“It’s been so many years since the club has had an ice show (like this). All of our volunteers were brand new to this so it was a learning experience for everybody,” Mardyn said.
Hunt, who joined the club this year, praised the parents and other volunteers who stepped up to help organize the show. Barring a few hiccups she felt things went really smoothly, noting they didn’t even have any children burst into tears during the show which is common when working with younger age groups.
“It was really nice to see how many people jumped on board with the carnival, especially with it being so new. I came from a club where we did a show every year, though not this big,” Hunt remarked. “It seemed like they were all having fun.”
Evelyn Lewthwaite, eight, was one of the dozens of children who took to the ice. Evelyn has been a member of the club for three years now and loved the chance to perform in front of a big audience.
“I like skating because my grandma and grandpa live on a lake and I’ve been skating there for a really long time. It’s just really fun for me,” Evelyn said.
Evelyn noted she really enjoyed demonstrating her synchro skating skills dressed as a ringmaster for the crowd. She also dressed up as a clown with her fellow junior academy members for a goofy and colourful number.
“It was exciting,” Evelyn said. “I feel really happy and excited and I just think skating is a really fun and exciting sport.”
Fellow club member and Evelyn’s cousin Cami Jones agreed that the show went well, noting this is her first year with the club. Cami got into skating after Evelyn introduced her and said she’s found it to be a super fun sport.
“I felt a little bit nervous (Saturday) but mostly excited. I was one of the circus mice,” Cami said. “I like learning all the tricks.”
Carnival coordinator Crystal Thibeault, who also took part in the show as one of teen/adult tightrope walkers, said she thought the event went absolutely fantastic. Thibeault added she’s proud of the club and the growth everyone has shown this year.
She noted their goal was to fill the grandstands which for the most part they did. Thibeault thanked the sponsors of the event, which included several local businesses, who helped the club put the show on.
“I would like to thank the community. Without our community, we couldn’t have put this together. We have an amazing, giving community that really helped us do this,” Thiebeault said. “I’ve had people reach out since the show ended saying how wonderful and nostalgic it made them feel to see the club come back to life. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment for us all.”
A highlight of the show this year was the inclusion of Langley Figure Skating Club members Hannah Li and Irena Lin. Mardyn invited them to show her students who are beginning to train for competitions what level of skill they can achieve with hard work.
“Because we have such a young club we don’t have any higher-level skaters (yet). (I invited them) for our guys to look up to and see what is to come for them in the next few years,” Mardyn said.
Going forward Mardyn anticipates the club will continue to grow in talent and numbers. She noted that when she first joined the club a little over two years ago they had around 70 members compared to this year where they had close to 150 across figure skating, power skating and their other skating programs.
Both Hunt and Mardyn said they’re already thinking about next year’s year-end show. While typically they’d only do something on Carnival’s scale every two years, they plan to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary during the 2024/2025 season.
“We’re still trying to figure out when our founding was but we’re going to celebrate the 50th anniversary anyway because if we already passed it it wasn’t celebrated. We’re not sure if we were founded in 1973, 1974 or 1975,” Mardyn chuckled. “Regardless of when it was, we’re going to celebrate it next season!”