The Village of Craven is home to a multi-purpose rink that demonstrates its motto, “Where our community comes together,” all year round. The rink is most popular between November and March, when activities take place on the ice.

“This rink has artificial ice,” said Fred Buhay, a member of the Craven Elks. “The artificial ice was put in by the Craven Elks, and then they had a rink committee form.

“There’s been as many as 125 kids come in for skating lessons. We’ve had lots of kids come in for skating, power skating and all that stuff.”

The rink was built in 1981 as a curling rink, but things had to change as teams moved on.

“About 25 years ago it was converted into a skating rink,” said Buhay. “Curling rinks have totally slowed down and nobody is curling anymore. So, when no one was curling, we had to make other uses out of the rink.”

Not only are there participants from the Craven community, but children come from Lumsden and other surrounding areas to take part in the fun. 

“Lumsden is very booked up with ice,” said Buhay. “So, all the kids come here for skating lessons and scrimmage. Some kids will be 12 years old, and they’ll come scrimmage with a soft rubber puck.”

Even people from the city find ways to make use of the village’s rink. 

“We went in Grade 8 for outdoor ed for some snowshoeing and skating in the rink,” said Maliyah Leviste, a Regina resident. “There was not much to it, I’ve been in better. It was still decent to skate on, and we had lots of fun.” 

When skating season comes to an end, it doesn’t mean the fun does. The rink expands its purpose to the community throughout the summer by hosting birthdays, anniversaries and other events. But there’s a little bit of competition with it. 

“During the summer, we had puppy races in here,” said Buhay. “We have BBQs here, where we’ll feed 350 people. There are also other events like bingo here for fundraising. Our competition for events is with the hall because people can either rent here for cheap or go to the Craven Community Centre.”

A $60,000 investment has recently been made toward the rink’s newest addition.

“And now, the Elks just built a playground,” said Buhay. “We started putting it in last year and we’re going to complete it this year. The rink and playground will be all together.”

Information on skating and events at the Craven Rink can be found at https://www.cravenrink.com/.