Above: Serena Sabet, Maya Henning and Jacey Hootstein celebrate the local skating community’s victory to keep Wollman and Lasker rinks open.
By Troy Schwindt
Serena Sabet was taking a walk on a Friday afternoon when she received a disheartening FaceTime call.
Maya Henning and Jacey Hootstein, Skating Club of New York friends and high school classmates, dropped the shocking news: The iconic Wollman Rink and companion Lasker Rink in New York City’s Central Park were abruptly being closed for the season on Sunday, Feb. 21, five weeks earlier than scheduled.
The reason? A political firestorm, which caught New York skaters and the two rinks directly in its crosshairs.
After the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio terminated all city contracts with the Trump Organization, which had operated the two rinks for 30 years.
“When I heard [about 4 p.m.], I was shocked, distraught and angry,” said Sabet, who with Henning and Hootstein have spent most of their lives skating at Wollman Rink, creating friendships and a lifetime of memories. “I ran home and we started writing up a petition, and it was posted [on Facebook and Instagram] by 5:30. We felt the need to defend it and all of the people who skate and work there.”
The Wollman Rink, which employs about 250 people, is where people from all over the world have come to learn how to skate or just simply glide around to feel the fresh air while taking in the breathtaking cityscape.
Lasker Rink, a twin-rink facility, is home to Figure Skating in Harlem, area youth and adult hockey programs and one of the top American Special Hockey Association programs for players with develop-mental disa¬bilities.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many people have suffered personal losses and experienced taxing isolation, Wollman and Lasker rinks have provided sanctuary. Being able to escape the gloom of the nightly news and the uncertainty of tomorrow have proven therapeutic to many who cherish these institutions — especially children and young adults.
News of the rinks’ early closures hit the three high school seniors particularly hard, the petition stated, because it would prevent them from finishing and celebrating their much-anticipated final skating season before heading off to college.
It was an unacceptable outcome.
“I felt so passionately that the rink shouldn’t be used as a pawn — skating shouldn’t be political,” Sabet said. “At the end of the day, the people who are benefitting or losing from this situation are the skaters and the workers, not the politicians.”
Taking Action
The quick action taken by the trio and the rest of the local skating community proved truly inspiring. The petition took off like wild fire. Within the first few hours Friday night, they had 700 signatures. On Saturday and Sunday, the girls handed out petition QR codes to people at the rink and in Central Park.
They made dozens of phone calls to family and friends, asking them to share the petition on their social media channels. Their furious and focused efforts grabbed the attention of major news outlets like the New York Times and Bloomberg News, while local television stations ramped up the drumbeat about the skating community’s fight to keep the rinks open.
With the petition gaining traction, other skaters and parent groups also made their voices heard.
Parents started the Facebook group “Wollman and Lasker rinks Friends and Families” to network and coordinate efforts. Parents also reached out to local media, encouraging news stories for what was to be the final weekend of the season. Parents and leaders of various user groups phoned and sent emails to New York City and New York City Parks officials, advocating for the rinks to remain open.
Some of the city leaders were sympathetic to the skaters and parents’ pleas and worked closely with them to promote their cause.
A middle school skater started an online campaign on social media: #SaveWollmanRink.
Skaters showed up Sunday morning with poster boards, crayons and markers. They made signs that read “Save Our Rinks,” “We (heart) Wollman” and Five More Weeks!” The signs were carried onto the ice during the morning figure skating session as the skaters chanted “Five More Weeks!”
One young child, emulating the petition efforts, drew lines with crayons on drawing paper and collected six pages of signatures.
“I’m incredibly proud of the girls and the rest of our skating community,” Skating Club of New York Executive Director Terri Levine said. “From the young skaters who walked around gathering signatures and handing out flyers with the QR code, to our junior board’s Team USA skaters who shared information and encouraged others to sign via social media to our adaptive skating families and the hockey community, it was truly a skating community effort.”
But despite the herculean push, the mayor did not respond.
“While rink staff and management were impressed by the community’s coordinated efforts, none was optimistic that their efforts would have any impact on the city’s earlier decision to close the rinks five weeks early,” said Elise Preston, senior program director at Wollman Rink for the past 25 years.
In the rushed final hours of the season, the skate school management team coordinated with the coaching staff and parents to host a farewell skating celebration Sunday evening for the Wollman Skating Academy members. Five graduating seniors — including Sabet, Henning and Hootstein — received honors at the Sunday evening celebration. Coaches scrambled to coordinate a show so the skaters could perform for parents and friends. It was organized so quickly that the skaters were unaware they would be performing until they arrived at the rink.
“There wasn’t a dry eye during this parting celebration,” Preston said. “[Then], around 6 p.m., a text was received announcing the city’s reversal of its decision. The announcement was then made over the loudspeaker. At first there was disbelief, then the reality that all of their efforts had actually made an impact set in.”
The moment was surreal for Sabet, Henning and Hootstein, who gathered nearly 7,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.
“Everyone was crying and hugging,” Sabet said. “I’ve never felt pride and joy like I did at that moment; it was like something out of a movie.”
The lessons learned from skating, Henning said, helped her and others rise to the occasion.
“Skating has given me resiliency, grit and confidence,” said Henning, who plans to specialize in coral genomics and conduct research on climate change in college. “Those characteristics helped me advocate for Wollman. I was not going to let the city take away something that matters so much to me and many others without doing something about it.
“Skating has taught me never to give up, even if the barriers seem insurmountable, so I took action.”
Hootstein said the collective effort got de Blasio’s attention.
“[It] proved to the mayor just how many people actually cared,” she said. “Wollman is such a special place for so many people because it’s created a community that is so close, like a second family.”
