One of the most popular activities to do during the winter in Minnesota is to go ice skating outdoors. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board floods many different parks each winter, creating ice for Minneapolis residents all over the city to enjoy. There are 20 different parks that have ice rinks this year, all across the metropolitan area.
Rinks are set to open this year on December 21st, right at the start of winter break, as long as the weather stays cold and the ice can freeze. These parks are a great way to learn how to skate, with the warming houses providing free ice skates for people to borrow, as well as hosting pickup hockey games for people to play in. The notable rinks that are near South Minneapolis this year are Sibley Park, Matthews Park, Hiawatha Park, McRae Park, and Longfellow Park, with many other rinks open all throughout the city.
Last year, the Park Board lost millions of dollars on outdoor ice rinks because of the warm winter and budget cuts, leading to the planned cuts of three separate ice rinks before 2026. The two rinks that are closing this year are Powderhorn and Webber, with Lyndale Farmstead set to close within the next two years. The original plan was to cut five rinks, but the community fought back against the closure of the Matthews and Windom Park rinks, and the park board agreed that they wouldn’t shut them down. Ice rinks bring communities together, existing as a central place for all kinds of people to gather and have fun, and demonstrating the importance of having places like these to bring people together.
The Park Board also runs recreational hockey and broomball leagues that are competitively played outdoors at the parks. Open to all skill levels, the leagues offer an expansive outlet to play winter sports that are both affordable and accessible within the cities. Micaiah Hendricks, a Park Board hockey player and employee, works at the warming house at Matthews Park and has skated and played hockey at the Minneapolis Parks for his entire life. Micaiah talks about how important these rinks are to him and his community. “They are extremely important because they bring the community together,” he states. “People of all ages and backgrounds get to connect over a common ground, and it’s Minnesota’s signature thing. It really represents Minnesota in a lot of ways.”
This winter, skating at Minneapolis Parks is a great way to get the Minnesota experience for free, and a convincing opportunity to learn a new skill and have fun while you’re at it.
![A power outage on Friday May 12 before the start of the school day led many students to leave the building and miss parts of first, second and third hour. “[Staff at the front door] said the power might be on at 11, so [we should] come back to school at 11,” recalled freshman Riley Olson. “A lot of people went back home.” However, Principal Afolabi Runsewe claimed and maintains that students were told to stay in the commons and were never given the option to leave school.](https://www.shsoutherner.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/power-outage.png)
