City of Rialto brings residents holiday cheer with ice skating rink

Another family-friendly home run presented and coordinated by the City of Rialto’s Community Services Department is its ice skating rink, located at City Hall, from December 4-12.

“Our city is extremely excited to have the ice skating rink return, especially after almost two years of this pandemic. We’re happy to bring it back to its original location, which is where it all started at Rialto City Hall,” said Mayor Deborah Robertson.

Another exciting attribute to this year’s holiday extravaganza is that the duration of the ice skating rink will be available for an entire week; giving all community groups, students, clubs, and constituents an opportunity to have some fun.

What many in the city are actually unaware of is the history behind the reason why the ice skating rink was brought into the city back in 2007 and it has to do with the Junior Olympics.

“There’s history, we started the skating rink after meeting a young girl from Rialto serving as Grand Marshall at the city’s Christmas parade in 2007. She was actually training for the Junior Olympics and was such an inspiration. She had won a handful of awards and was so dedicated to the craft that we thought it would be amazing for other people in our city to have the opportunity to ice skate too,” concluded Robertson.

Since the opening day of the ice rink, hundreds of families and their children have taken advantage of the rare opportunity to ice skate in literally the middle of their city.

“The skating rink is open Monday through Friday, 3-9 pm; hot chocolate and goodies are available for purchase. If you bring in canned goods or unwrapped toys for our forthcoming holiday drive, you get $2 off your skate rental for each person who brings an item to donate,” said Cynthia Alvarado, Director of Community Services Department.

Tickets are available online or in person when the rink opens, and covers one hour skate rental (adults $10, children 4-10 years old are $7).

“We hope residents stop by and enjoy themselves. Santa Claus was at our holiday festival this past weekend, but you can still catch a glimpse of The Grinch and Elf on a Shelf as they make appearances throughout the week,” concluded Alvarado.

For more information, visit www.yourrialto.com.