(submitted photo/CHATNewsToday)

By Chris Brown

Pond hockey... and more

Volunteers kept skaters on ice in South Ridge this winter

Mar 7, 2021 | 9:33 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Dave Hertz has spent his winter making sure city kids can create the same sort of memories he did when he was young.

Hertz and about half a dozen volunteers have been taking care of the South Ridge Pond so that hockey players, figure skaters and more have a safe and wide-open place for fun on the ice.

“We just thought with all the COVID and everything it would be good to give them as much space as possible,” said Hertz, who owns Dunmore Drinking Water.

It started with one guy on a quad sectioning off four or five different rinks and making a skating path.

Since then they’ve flooded and cleared snow when it was needed and even put up light towers to extend the skating into the evening.

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Hertz and the rest were happy to donate their time and the equipment.

“It’s cool. It’s something I grew up doing, playing hockey and skating,” he says. “It was good to see them out there and at times there was a lot of them.”

Hertz says the city was great to work with all winter to make sure everything was safe and everything needed was there.

He plans to donate his time again next year and has some ideas about how to improve the area to make it even more family-friendly and enjoyable.