{"id":37838,"date":"2026-03-26T16:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37838"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:18:19","slug":"aurora-could-take-roller-skating-drop-ins-for-a-spin-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-could-take-roller-skating-drop-ins-for-a-spin-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora could take roller skating drop-ins for a spin this year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Roller skating drop-ins could be a new addition to the Town of Aurora\u2019s recreation programs, if Council signs off on a new initiative next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council gave the tentative thumbs-up to a new drop-in program earlier this month at the Committee level. Should this decision be ratified on March 31, opportunities for drop-in roller skating and inline skating could be developed pending the availability of local arenas when the ice is out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Auroran reported earlier this month, municipal staff have been exploring the idea of formal roller skating activities following a motion made last year by Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While staff found that hiring an outside company to operate roller skating activities locally was cost prohibitive, they said drop-in programs where users bring their own skates and protective equipment could be a quick win for skating enthusiasts and the Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Council is comfortable with us proceeding with the drop-in concept, our staff, firstly, will just look at our schedule and availability of the dry ice pads once the ice comes out,\u201d said Robin McDougall, Aurora\u2019s Director of Community Services. \u201cSimilar to what we did a couple of years ago regarding\u2026the introduction of pickleball on our dry pads, we\u2019d do the same for this matter and do have a promotion around that as a program drop-in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stouffville, noted McDougall, is one municipality that has a formal weekly program with a private provider, but this was secured with grant funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs far as the drop-in model, not too many do it yet, but we\u2019re learning, and certainly any experience [other municipalities] have we\u2019ll make ours as strong as we can to get it going,\u201d she continued. \u201cI think promotion is a big thing. I know that there obviously is already existing popular roller skating rinks, not just in York Region, but beyond, but we could even in\u2026 a try-it model, bring in a guest, not a performer per se, but somebody with that skillset just to draw attention to how this could actually be. I\u2019m careful not to tip the scale of a new event because we\u2019re in-year and I\u2019ve got to be sensitive to the budget aspect, but it\u2019s certainly a try-it kind of initiative and we can look at what we can achieve this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the drop-in initiative was ultimately supported by Council, some members expressed disappointment at the cost building a more substantive program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was really hoping it would be a little more affordable than what was being presented. I was excited about it, I think the community was excited, however I do remain optimistic that there\u2019s something we can do,\u201d said Councillor Gilliland, underscoring the importance of a \u201ctry-it\u201d day to build both awareness and excitement over the activity. \u201cHopefully that is something we can look towards to gain excitement and momentum about coming and doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese said he had \u201cgreater expectations\u201d when it came to the available options, but said he understood the reasoning behind staff\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe used to be a roller skating town and we\u2019ve lost that momentum,\u201d he said. \u201cI agree with Councillor Gilliland about just offering a pop-up. I\u2019m wondering if you do the same kinds of things that we do with all other sport activities by providing a learn-to-skate, doing it with youth, and building the momentum based on the development of that skill and, of course, do all the other types of social things that are being done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re looking at what the next steps are, if we can think about offering programming for this, so that five years down the road we\u2019re going to have a large number of people, I see this as a sport tourism opportunity, too, because if we do it first, other people will come to a place that really rocks and I think it\u2019s important for that social element, because that\u2019s a very important part of the roller skating crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roller skating drop-ins could be a new addition to the Town of Aurora\u2019s recreation programs, if Council signs off on a new initiative next week. Council gave the tentative thumbs-up to a new drop-in program earlier this month at the Committee level. Should this decision be ratified on March 31, opportunities for drop-in roller skating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9Qi","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 20:57:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37839,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37838\/revisions\/37839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}