Navigating The Ice And Early Life Lessons 

South Seattle resident Ellen Lackermann is now watching her second grandchild learn how to skate at the Kraken Community Iceplex and realizes the importance of it extends far beyond the ice.

“The great thing about skating is you learn that when you fall down, you get up,” she said. “Fall down, you get up. What a great life lesson.”

And to ensure other children keep learning such lessons, Lackermann serves as a volunteer chaperone for the Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA) “Learn to Skate” program hosted at the Iceplex by the Kraken and their One Roof Foundation (ORF) philanthropic arm. The program’s fifth year of weekly classes, spread across 32 weeks, began Oct. 8 with a record 110 pupils – among them Lackermann’s grandson, Abe, 4, which is up from the 80 kids who previously participated in each of the first four annual sessions.

Some of those preschoolers from the original ReWA skating classes four years ago are still playing hockey today in the Jr Kraken program.

Lackermann’s older granddaughter, Oona, 6, started off in those original classes, and her confidence quickly grew and extended to other activities.

“Oona has a tendency to, if she's not really good at something, immediately, just kind of want to give up and not even try,” she said. “And it's hard sometimes to go through that phase where you're learning and you're not good at a sport, or at reading, or whatever. And so, the skating was an opportunity to start out with barely being able to even stand up, and then eventually you're skating around the rink.”

Lackermann said she became a chaperone with other parents and family members because “it’s fun to see the kids learning” and “getting to know the other kids and their parents.”

Anita Zhen, a ReWA family support specialist, said the chaperoning component is an important part of the program.

“It’s having them show up,” Zhen said. “To be there, to see their kids grow and learn, and give them opportunities to do that. Because a lot of programs don’t always do that right.”

ReWA provides free and low-cost, bilingual and bicultural childcare and preschool for children up to age 5, with locations at existing learning centers on Martin Luther King Blvd. as well as in Lake City, Beacon Hill, and in Northgate. A fifth location is due to open in Othello this year.

ORF helps supply transportation to the Community Iceplex from the various learning center locations for the preschool program participants. Skating and hockey instructors are also supplied by ORF and the Kraken.

“A big part of this for families is them personally getting to see their child’s skating development,” Zhen said. “Because from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year, I’m almost looking at two different groups of kids when it comes to their level of improvement.”

But as with Lackermann, Zhen feels the program benefits far exceed what’s merely taking place on the ice. Zhen said about 80% of the children don’t speak English as a first language, so the skating lessons give them and their families a chance to mingle socially and take part in something they ordinarily would not be able to.

“We want to provide a resource for families that typically wouldn’t be able to learn to skate or play hockey,” she said. “Part of it is they don’t even know it exists. They don’t know that it’s an option. We have families where they come from different immigrant, refugee, or BIPOC backgrounds, and honestly, the biggest part is providing them with information that this resource is there.

“So, for them it’s huge. It’s learning that this resource is there and that ‘I’m not on my own’ – that there’s a community behind everyone.”

And program chaperone Lackermann, now taking her second grandchild to skating lessons, feels a part of that community. She and young Abe will board a provided-for coach bus every week at the ReWA learning center on Martin Luther King Blvd. and spend the next few hours riding to and from the Iceplex lessons with others they’ve come to know.

“Even riding that bus was a thrill for the kids,” she said. “Riding it through downtown, they really liked that. And to see the kids interacting with other kids in the class, that’s a lot of fun as well.”