Summer hockey a reality on Governors Island

NEW YORK --Thanks largely to Marc Kohn, hockey is in season on Governors Island on an 85-degree day in August.

Kohn is the founder of Mel's Rink, a 160x50 synthetic pop-up rink that sits on the northern tip of the island in the shadow of Lower Manhattan.
"We'd never done it in the summer before," Kohn said Saturday. "It's been a challenge out here because it's [been] 95 degrees and by the time they get here they want to fall over.
"Days it is not so hot, we kill it."

Kohn has operated the pop-up skating rink seven days a week, rain or shine, for 9-12 hours a day, with help from partner Julian Shapiro, since May 26. The rink will stay open through late October, then they will head to Washington, D.C. for their second season on the roof of the Watergate Hotel.
Kohn is from Bedford, Massachusetts, but fell in love with the Washington Capitals after moving to Silver Spring, Maryland, as a teenager. He passed that love on to his stepdaughter Melanie Osborne, who died in 2015 at age 35 of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder. Shortly after her death, Kohn began building Mel's Rink behind his farm in Poolesville, Maryland, mostly to cope with grief.

"I just needed something to do," Kohn said. "It was good for me to just bang something and build something."
The original Mel's Rink was a hit with local children, but it was shut down by the town for violating a zoning ordinance. Kohn is fundraising so he can operate a full-time facility in Montgomery County, Maryland, that will teach hockey to low-income children and kids with disabilities.

Tourists regularly stumble onto the rink at Governors Island, including four girls Saturday ages 8-11 from Israel who had never played hockey before. But they rented skates, and used sticks and pucks provided by Kohn, who hopped on the ice to help them improve their skating technique.
"I think it's great because they would probably never do it at a real ice rink because it is too much effort." Kohn said. "I think the world is a better place with more hockey players."