NEW YEAR’S EVENT
The annual New Year’s Eve skate event at Gray-8-Skate was held Dec. 31, ringing in 2023 with a glow theme for families and teenagers.
Joel Shiver, employee and future owner of Gray-8-Skate, said he was excited for the event. He said it’s always exciting, and everyone looks forward to it.
“We did our late skate on New Year’s Eve, where we did two sessions. We did a family skate from 12-5 p.m. and a 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. late skate for the teens,” he said. “We did a balloon drop like we always do. We usually do an all-night skate here at Gray-8-Skate, but we decided against that. We wanted something more family-oriented.”
He said everything is operating like normal at Gray-8-Skate, and they still have their normal activities. He said they have been gearing up for 2023. He said this January he should be the new owner of the rink.
“This gives our teenagers in the community a place to come that’s safe, and it gives parents time to go out and enjoy the New Year. This is a tradition we have always done, but we decided it was best for customers and the staff not to stay here until the morning,” Shiver said. The future owner said the late skate on New Year’s Eve is important for the community so teenagers have a place to come. He said they get to ring in the year with friends. He said the children always enjoy the balloon drop.
“We had a waffle bar based on Stranger Things.
There was whipped cream and sprinkles. It was just a lot of fun to do, and we like to try to do things the kids are into now,” the future owner said.
Shiver said they had a glow theme going on, and everyone got to hang out.
He said they got to do a few skate games while there, but because it wasn’t an all-night skate, they couldn’t fit everything in that they usually do.
He said his favorite thing about the event is the countdown to the balloon drop. He said there is a lot of suspense, and the children win prizes from it. He said everyone has a great time during that. He said he has lots of new ideas for 2023, so the community should be looking out for those.
“I think the kids look forward to the all-night skates best, but teenagers are still our main focus with the late night skate.
Families are our main focus in the community, so we wanted to have the two sessions for this,” he said. “The kids really seem to enjoy everything, and we looked forward to doing this with the community like always.
We hope 2023 will be great for our community, and we can’t wait to see everyone in 2023.”
