The spirit of Christmas touched down at Oceanside Place Wednesday evening as Sandy Shores Skating Club hosted its Dessert Night and Christmas Concert.
A fundraiser for the local club, admission was by donation, and those who turned out were treated to lots of enthusiastic skaters taking turns showing off their routines on the ice, and had their pick from a dessert table packed with home-baked goods.
“We had 17 skaters performing solos and we also had three group numbers,” SSSC co-head coach Leslee Rushton said after. The KinderSkate and CanSkate kids wowed the crowd with their routine to Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer; the Jr. Skaters did a Hawaiian Hula Christmas number and the senior skaters performed a group number to Jingle Bells.
A vision of concentration in her first ever solo performance was Tabitha Dvaughn, who celebrated her eighth birthday at last Monday’s practice with cup cakes.
“She’s never even competed before — it was her first time performing her little solo, and she did a great job,” said Leslee, adding, “they were all very excited and they all had great fun. It was really nice,” she said, adding it’s something her husband Larry has wanted to do for years “but we’ve just never been able to pull it together.”
SSSC is raffling off two tickets to a Canucks game Dec. 19 versus the Minnesota Wild. This is one of the SSSC’s biggest fundraisers of the year and tickets are available from any SSSC member or look for the club’s table in the lobby at Oceanside Place. The winning ticket will be drawn Dec. 16 at the club’s Christmas party.