RITCHIE RINK VOLUNTEER IS AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL
Many Edmontonians have childhood memories of the man or men who made the ice at their local rinks. Back then, it was a badge of honour to volunteer long, hard hours to provide a perfect surface for the beautiful game.
Today, with our hectic schedules and easy distractions, it is very rare to find volunteers who are willing to work another full-time job free for their community league.
Ritchie’s Leonard Wampler brand of volunteerism seems like a dying breed. The 53 year old University of Alberta employee has spent the last 16 years over the long, cold winter months quietly scraping and watering to make ice when most people are cozy in bed or doing something a lot more enjoyable than slipping around with a heavy hose at -20C!
“Many years ago, there was a fellow that used to look after the rink, but he was getting a little old, too senior to maintain it. They couldn’t find someone else to do it, so a neighbour and myself volunteered to do it for one year. I’ve been doing it ever since,” he says with an easy laugh.
“The best days when I come up and I’m expecting four or five hours of shoveling and I get up here and somebody’s already shoveled it for me and I just spend a couple hours blowing it off.
“One of my worst days is coming up and finding a snow pile in the middle of the rink, and it’s not just a pile of snow anymore because it rained the night before and it’s covered in ice. So, you spend two days with a pick axe chipping it off and you shovel it off and just as you’ve finished shoveling - it starts to snow again!”
Wampler gives a lot of credit to his wife Kathy, who becomes a rink widow every winter.
“She handles it very well. There’s moments when she says, ‘Do you live here any more?’” he says with a big laugh. “But all in all, she’s very supportive.”
Even though Wampler’s hockey playing son and ringette playing daughter have grown up, he logs close to two hundred hours each winter.
“I don’t really use it that much (myself) anymore ... I really enjoy watching the guys come out to play hockey, shinny. Kids skate around and say, ‘Hey Len, come on and put your skates on!’
“They’ve offered to pay me. I sort of refuse to be paid for the simple reason, if I got paid, I’d feel it was a job. I’d feel obligated to do it.
“It means a lot to me, in the fact that I’m doing it for other people. It’s something I can give of myself to other people - I guess that’s it. It’s a way for me to give back to the community as well as other members who want to use it.
“It’s an enjoyment for me to sit back and watch everything and people using it and know I was responsible, if it weren’t for me, this may not be here.”
Councillor Batty (left) and Minister of Culture and Community Spirit, LIndsay Blackett (right) honor Leonard Wampler (center) for Long Service at EFCL Volunteer Recognition Awards in November last year.
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