Volunteers share skills, techniques behind building outdoor community rinks in Saskatoon

SaskatchewanEvery year, handfuls of volunteers across Saskatoon spend time putting up rink boards, flooding and preparing the ice, and maintaining the surface throughout winter. The city is home to around 50 outdoor rinks owned and operated by neighbourhood community associations.Saskatoon is home to about 50 outdoor community rinks owned and operated by neighbourhood associationsJeremy Warren · CBC News · Posted: Dec 08, 2025 4:58 PM EST | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Clearing snow off of the Cameco Meewasin Skating Rink at Nutrien Plaza in this CBC file photo from Dec. 22, 2016. (CBC)Roger Cey decided to try something different this year when his all-volunteer crew started the weeks-long process of building the outdoor community rink in Saskatoon’s Briarwood neighbourhood.Every year, handfuls of volunteers across Saskatoon spend time putting up rink boards, flooding and preparing the ice, and maintaining the surface throughout winter. The city is home to around 50 outdoor rinks owned and operated by neighbourhood community associations.Cey’s crew went without a liner this year when starting to flood the rink to create ice. The community rink opened up to skaters last week and so far the strategy change is working, said Cey, the Briarwood Community Association’s rink coordinator.“We typically use a liner and I got into trouble with snow on top of the liner before I got the rink done,” Cey said in an interview with CBC last week.“The water can run away on you a little bit, but we shored it up around the edges and it seems to have actually made better ice that way.”WATCH | Volunteers share what it takes to build a community rink :Volunteers share what it takes to build a community rinkCreating and maintaining the ice on outdoor rinks in Saskatchewan cities is a community effort. CBC spoke to rink co-ordinators in Saskatoon who are keeping cool under all that water pressure.Nice iceRetiree Larry Hounjet had some spare time and signed up as the Rosewood Community Association’s rink co-ordinator a few years ago. But “it takes a community to make one of these things go, this isn’t a one-man show,” Hounjet said in a recent CBC interview.Volunteers started preparing the Rosewood outdoor rink in late November.“We have an oscillating sprinkler that we bring out here, hook it up to the fire hose, let it sit and form a bit of a base,” Hounjet said. “Then we take the sprinkler off and we use just the regular fire hose and make a little bit of a thicker flood.”The work pays off when Hournjet drives by on a weekend night and sees dozens of kids still skating.“There are kids that will come out here, –25 at night sometimes, and put on their skates to go skating,” Houngjet said.“There will be teenagers that come here after the lights are out. They’ll park their cars on the street so they have enough light to play.”In Briarwood, Cey and his crew flooded the rink twice a day for almost three weeks to create quality skating ice. Throughout the winter they’ll flood the rink once or twice a week depending on the weather.“The warm weather will rip up the ice a little easier with the skates,” Cey said. “Then the really cold weather actually can cause it to crack.”There’s about a dozen people on the Briarwood rink committee helping out, he said.“We take turns cleaning it and it’s a great community that way,” Cey said. “Everybody likes to pitch in and help.”LISTEN | Volunteers talk about what it takes to build a community rink:Saskatoon Morning5:44Saskatoon Morning is checking out a couple of community outdoor rinks in the cityABOUT THE AUTHORJeremy Warren is a reporter in Saskatoon. You can reach him at jeremy.warren@cbc.ca.With files from Scott Larson