Skating Into A New Comfort Zone 

There was a time when Buted Tsenguun could not have imagined any of her children playing hockey in front of hundreds of spectators.

But Tsenguun, wearing traditional Deel clothing from her native Mongolia, was at the Kraken Community Iceplex last weekend watching her son, Duursakh, 4, partake in a hockey and skating demonstration. It was part of an End of Year Celebration for 80 preschoolers who’d undergone a 32-week Learn To Skate program courtesy of a partnership between the Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA) and the Kraken’s One Roof Foundation (ORF) non-profit arm.

“He was so funny when he first started learning to skate,” Tsenguun said. “He looked just like a little penguin. But now he looks so comfortable out there.”

It wasn’t long before her son also had a hockey stick in his hand, something she’d never thought possible for her Seattle-born children after immigrating to the United States a decade ago. That East Asian nation, the world’s third coldest, uses its frozen rivers in winter more for ice fishing than hockey despite the recent presence of a fledgling national team now ranked 50th internationally.

“It’s because of this ReWA program and One Roof Foundation that we were able to do this,” said Tsenguun, now serving as a volunteer parent chaperone for the weekly skating lessons. “Otherwise, we would never have gotten to try it.”

Last weekend’s festivities, watched by about 300 parents and friends in the Community Iceplex’s main rink grandstands, included the young children donning traditional costumes from their families’ homelands as part of the skating and hockey demonstrations, as well as during a fashion show and various dance and martial arts exhibitions taking place on the ice. It was the fourth such class to graduate from the program, running throughout the school year, since ORF and ReWA teamed up on it more than four years ago, enabling about 320 preschoolers thus far to don skates for the first time.

Those on hand to speak at the festivities included Washington state senators Javier Valdez (46th District, Seattle) and Claire Wilson (30th District, Auburn), along with Dwane Chappelle, director of the City of Seattle’s Department of Education and Early Learning.

“To me, it’s providing the kids an opportunity to do things they traditionally don’t have access to in order to perfect their skills,” Wilson said. “You think of 3-and-4-year-olds trying to skate and people go ‘No! Really?’ But it was a lot of fun to watch them.”

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 and Beacon Hill. A fourth location in Northgate is due to open this summer, with a fifth one in Othello next 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.

Susan Lee, ReWA senior director for education, said allowing the children to grow their confidence is a main driver of the ReWA partnership.

“Our kids are from low-income families, they are refugees and immigrants,” Lee said. “But you know, in essence, we are all human beings. We bleed red.”

And that confidence boost will often come away from the ice as well as on it. Just taking the bus ride to the rink, she said, allows them to interact with other children their age often living through a shared immigrant experience in a new country.

Lee, who immigrated here from China, said children from other countries won’t always envision themselves playing North American sports.

“The vision that I had was to give equity to those people in our community who don’t typically have that access,” she said. “And as we get bigger and better every year, we’re more intentional with our design so that kids can see themselves as ice skaters. They can see themselves as hockey players.”

Lee said the program with ORF also gives immigrant parents a chance to be “prideful” of their children’s performance in a different cultural setting without abandoning their family heritage. That’s why parents and children at the graduation ceremonies were encouraged to wear cultural clothing from their native lands.

“The traditional cultural outfits, the drumming, the lion dances and songs were all really about confidence and building ourselves,” she said. “And not having to think about abandoning who we are, our culture and identity, just to fit in. We want to encourage being who we are -- our heritages, food and language – and embrace that.

“And in a society where it’s really turbulent right now, I think it’s more important than ever to really have that sense of pride and be supported in it.”

Tsenguun was beaming with pride after watching not only her son participate in last weekend’s ceremonies, but also her daughter, Sungari, 9, who first started taking part in open free skates at the Community Iceplex organized by ReWA about four years ago. The third grader at Olympic View Elementary in Lacey, who also wore a traditional Deel costume during the skating demonstration, tried hockey for the first time this past year, just like her brother and liked it more than the free skating she’s typically done.

“I like it because you get to hit the puck with the stick,” she said. “It’s like soccer, except with a stick, and the players skating around are much faster than they would with just their feet.”

Going forward, she hopes to try figure skating.

“It’s like dancing on ice and I like that,” she said. “There’s more flexibility involved.”

And with barriers to accessibility removed, that flexibility to choose whatever ice sport she wants is now much more of a reality.

If you’d like to help ORF get more preschoolers on the ice, you can donate here, with "donate here" linking to this page: 

https://onerooffoundation.org/don/