Rock the Riverside fundraiser to help hockey in Moose Lake

Many people are looking to keep cool from the heat of Labor Day weekend. Although in Moose Lake, fundraising efforts are looking to keep the Riverside arena cool in Winter. Moose Lake Area Hockey Association is hosting Rock the Riverside fundraiser, to gather $558,000 for a new arena cooling system.

Amy Fitzsimmons, the MLAHA’s president, said the Rock the Riverside fundraiser is the first of many fundraising events.

“The cooling system now currently is working,” Fitzsimmons said. “But what we’re worried about is it doesn’t have a long lifespan. It is an older system. So we want to try and get ahead of the game. Make sure that that we can replace it before it doesn’t work.”

Fitzsimmons said that many kids benefit from playing hockey, because it can help them learn team building skills. “My youngest got into it and just we found such a great community,” Fitsimmons said.

“We played in a couple other communities before we lived in Moose Lake and there was always that sense of community whenever we were with hockey teams. It’s been just really positive to watch him kind of develop and watch all these kids really develop and build relationships.”

Plenty of kids at the Rock the Riverside’s fundraiser also said the arena is the favorite place for hockey practice. Atticus Richter, a member of the Moose Lake Rebels hockey team, said that playing in below freezing temperatures outside just isn’t fun.

“I don’t like outside practices. Everything feels numb after practice outside,” Richter said. “To me just being able to have a team and being able to play with them and just having fun.”

Hailey Ikola, another member of the Moose Lake Rebels said if the Riverside arena was unable to have the team play hockey, she wouldn’t want to play hockey someplace else. Ikola said she made a lot of friends being on the team over her seven years playing hockey.

“It would be sad, because then I wouldn’t be able to really play hockey. If I would want to I have to play with other teams and I like my team,” Ikola said.

For more information about Rock the Riverside’s fundraiser you can look here. For other stories in Moose Lake you can read more here.