In April we held our Annual General Meeting. It's so nice to be able to hold this event and welcome all the skaters and families to attend in person. This is the first year since 2019 that we've been able to hand out awards in person to all of our amazing skaters. Below is a list of awards and other amazing accomplishments our club has had this past year.
Our Coaches 2022/2023 - Thank you
Awards 2022/2023
Our 3 Graduating Skaters: Kiana Byrne, Eleanor Kelly &
Madison Simoneau (a recipient of the JDFSC Scholarship)
JDFSC Graduating skaters may apply for a scholarship in their graduating year. One requirement is that they are a PA (Program Assistant) volunteering for a minimum of 2 years on the Canskate program and they are furthering their education at post secondary.
Congratulations skaters and all the best in the years to come!
Our CanSkate program cannot be done without the dedication, energy, commitment, patience, and skills of our amazing PA’s and PA’s in training. We want to thank them for their wonderful contribution to this program.
PA volunteers: Caitlin Spivey, Madison Simoneau, Abbey Brown, Eva Khamidullina, Nihitha Pottumuttu, Sophia Park, Serena Park, Ashley Bourgoin, Eleanor Kelly, Hailey Bodman, Kiana Byrne, Ariana Robertson, Jessica Brewer, Avery Lister, Jamie Page, Alexandra Hargrave, Elsa Lee.
PA in training volunteers: Mia Lemire, Avery Festejo, Liliana Watson, Evelyn Bekkema, Julie Forslund, Opale Adamek-Drolet, Devin Williams, Madeline Evans, Alexis Slinn, Lilah Gallant, Aurora Hazen.
Each year nominations are submitted to the BC/YT Section and on behalf of the coaches in the JDFSC, these skaters in the following categories were nominated for the Skate Canada BC/YT Section Awards.
Recipients of the Skate Canada Awards are notified by the BC Section if they win an award and invited to attend the Awards ceremony held at the Section AGM banquet in Burnaby in May.
Nominated for the BC/YT 2023 Section Program Assistant: Caitlin Spivey
The purpose of this award is to recognize dedicated and passionate program assistants who continually share Skate Canada’s vision with all participants of the program. This award is presented to individuals who are not only great assets to the coaching team on the ice, but also show their commitment off the ice by providing support and assistance to the club and its registrants.
Nominated for the BC/YT 2023 Section StarSkater Award: Avery Lister
The purpose of this award is to recognize skaters who have demonstrated determination and commitment to the Star program. Recipients of this award have displayed passion for the sport and have achieved success throughout the season, not only within the Star assessment structure, but also with personal skill development and growth.
Nominated for the BC/YT 2023 Section Skater Challenge Award and this year’s recipient of this Skate Canada award is Madeline Evans -Congratulations on being chosen by the Section!
This award is presented to the skater the Selection Committee feels has made a special achievement in figure skating. The skater who has a serious health problem or handicap but overcame by virtue of exceptional effort. Madeline suffers from an Autoimmune disease called Alopecia Totalis and has lost all her hair. It has been an extremely stressful year for this young skater who suffered at school with children being cruel but found support at the rink with the JDFSC skaters and coaches. She has been able to compete at many competitions with the support she has in place and has been an incredible asset to our Canskate program as a PA in training. It takes great courage at such a young age to be able to handle her serious health issue and we want to applaud her courage both on and off the ice!
The coaches are very proud of all the skaters in the JDFSC and want to congratulate them all! We have an incredibly successful year with our membership increasing year after year. This year we are close to 400 compared to last year approx. 300. I believe we are still the largest club on Vancouver Island.
We have had amazing results in competitions with many ribbons and medals brought home by our many Starskate (Star 1 to Juvenile) and competitive (Pre-Novice to Junior) skaters. This year we now also have a Senior lady competing for the first time in many years! We celebrated our Novice Lady – Madison Simoneau placing 6th in the Provincial Championships (BC/YT Sections) to qualify her for Novice Challenge held in Regina Saskatchewan in January which is the qualifying event for Nationals!
We had 3 skaters selected to represent our zone at the BC Winter Games.
Pre-Novice - Ariana Robertson
Juvenile – Avery Lister & Alexandra Hargrave
For the first time in many years the club has Super Series Champions!!!
Eva Khamidullina - 1st place in the Province in Star 5 U13
Jessica Brewer - 2nd place in the Province in Star 8
Avery Lister – 2nd place in the Province in Juvenile U14 and the Vancouver Island Juvenile U14 Champion,
Julie Forslund - Vancouver Island U12 Juvenile Champion
The club’s two Synchro teams had amazing results as well and it is great to see the growth in this area of the sport.
We continue to see wonderful results at the Star 1-5 Assessments (Assessed by the skaters primary coach) as well as at the Star 6-Gold Assessment days judged by a Skate Canada official.
And for the first year ever we have had waitlists for all our CanSkate programs!!
The coaches and skaters have worked hard both on and off the ice and the results are a testament to their success. We couldn't be prouder.
We also want to thank our board of directors for all their work behind the scenes to keep our club running smoothly. From working with the Director of Skating & Senior Club Advisor to book the ice at the arenas, to registration, website updates, social media announcements and engagement, accounting, payroll, organizing test assessment days, inputting tests to Skate Canada, writing grant applications, organizing hotel group rates, fundraisers, and working with the Section.
We couldn't run if we didn't have a board of volunteers. It takes a village and we are always looking for more help to make this club even bigger and better. Please reach out if you feel you could help support the skaters by volunteering. The board meets on the third Tuesday of every month.
We look forward to what this next year brings and the successes of the skaters.
See you at the rink!
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