The revitalization of Downtown Sunnyvale continues this holiday season with the introduction of an outdoor ice rink. The rink is already up and running in the heart of downtown, beneath the historic Redwood trees on Murphy Avenue.
This is the first year that Downtown Sunnyvale has had an outdoor rink, but the hope is that it will not be the last.
“The hope, fingers crossed here, is that this can be a recurring thing for Downtown Sunnyvale,” said Travis Duncan, Project Manager at Sares Regis Group of Northern California, the group that manages CityLine Sunnyvale. “We won’t know with absolute certainty until we get through this season, but that’s the goal. We’re trying to rebuild Downtown Sunnyvale and having an ice rink there year after year, we think, would be an amazing opportunity for the City and the region.”
The ice rink opened on Nov. 22 to much fanfare. Hundreds of people showed up to celebrate the opening and see the festivities.
There was a light show created by artist James Clark and skating performances put together by Polina Edmunds, who skated for the Team USA at the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia and currently attends Santa Clara University. Edmunds helped put together a series of skating performances by local skaters.
The ice rink in Sunnyvale will be open to the public most afternoons and evenings, with special events planned for the mornings including possible private skating lessons and learn to curl sessions.
“We’ll offer people the opportunity to come in and learn what curling is with people who really know what they’re doing,” said Duncan. “There’s a local curling group that we’re affiliated with who will be bringing those instructors in the morning for people to understand what that’s all about.”
There will also be movie nights and rock and roll skate nights.
“A couple of Fridays during the course of the rink where we’ll have different music,” said Duncan. “70s, 80s or 90s music play throughout the night, to appeal to different demographics who have love for different decades of music. Millennials may not love the 70s music, but hopefully their parents will.”
There will also be a partnership with the annual rides for toys event conducted by the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and Sunnyvale Community Services.
“If you come downtown with an unwrapped toy, donate that to Sunnyvale Community Services, you get to go for a ride on a fire truck around downtown,” said Duncan. “The ice rink is partnering with those to make tickets less expensive that day for people who bring in a toy donation.”
Any profit made from this year’s ice rink will be donated to Sunnyvale Community Services.
Learn more at www.citylinesunnyvale.com/icerink/.