The Williams Lake Skating Club is gearing up for its annual winter showcase.
Skaters as young as two and three-years-old in the Canskate program and figure skaters will grace Rink 1 on Thursday, Dec. 19.
Coaches Breanna Penney (Roussel) and Marissa Bruneau said there will be 70 skaters on the ice in total.
Some will perform group numbers and some competitive figure skaters will do solos.
"We have a lot of Canskaters this year, a lot of junior academy skaters this year, and we started a new synchro program to keep teen skaters involved in skating," Penney said, adding the synchro skaters will be attending their first competition in January. "I'm super excited for them."
Sometimes when skaters reach the ages of 13 and 14, it gets more difficult to keep them interested so they have been happy with the synchro program's success, she added.
"It lessens the pressure on individuals because it's a team event so they can rely on their peers to support them."
Both Penney and Bruneau skated with the Williams Lake Skating Club as young athletes.
"I know when I was growing up my coaches had such a big impact on my life and skating taught me so many lessons outside of skating, like hard work and perseverance," Penney said. "It was such an important part of my life and I'm just so grateful I can hopefully instill those values in other kids."
Her coaches were Joanne Macnair, Sandi Sandrock and Shelley Gillis.
Skating is super freeing, Penney said, adding she was on the ice by the time she was two-years-old and then joined the Canskate program when she was five-years-old.
Outside of coaching five days a week after school, she also works for School District 27, and enjoys doing dog sports with her golden retriever and her borer-collie cross.
"They do agility sports and dock diving. When I'm not coaching that is what I spend my time doing."
Bruneau said Joanne Macnair was her coach in Williams Lake. She later moved to Armstrong where she continued skating until she graduated from high school in 2014.
She moved back to the lakecity in 2016 and two years ago started taking courses to become a skating coach.
"I think I've always really wanted to be a coach," she said. "When you are growing up and you have those coaches that inspire you and it hits you that you want to inspire other kids to help them through their journey too."
She and Penney work well as a team, she added, noting they grew up skating together and already knew each other from that part of their lives.
"We skated pretty much at the same level and had that relationship and connection already."
Her favourite thing about skating as a younger person was being able to express herself in a way she could not in other terms.
"It was my kind of release for things I didn't know how to express."
Aside from coaching, she works at Pregnancy Outreach as an infant development consultant, she enjoys hanging out at home with her partner and her cat.
The showcase starts at 7 p.m. in Rink 1.
"We always ask for Rink 1 because it has better lighting and the stands are good for people to come and watch," Penney said.
Admission is free, but donations for the food bank are appreciated.
The show will last about 90 minutes.
