Kiltskate in a Time of COVID
It’s a tough balance: following the public health guidelines to stay indoors and still get enough outdoor exercise. Ottawa, Eastern Ontario and West Quebec are blessed with recreation facilities that make skating a favourite way to strike that balance: outdoor community rinks, private backyard rinks, frozen rivers that Joni Mitchell could skate away on. And, of course, the world’s largest skating rink: the Rideau Canal Skateway. The provincial and municipal governments and the National Capital Commission have each set up rules for how to enjoy outdoor activities according to public health protocols.
David Johnston, for one, has been taking advantage of the outdoor skating option. Before the lockdown rules went into effect in January, he donned his kilt and brought his pipes down to Lansdowne Park where he has been a feature each year in our community gathering known as the Great Canadian Kilt Skate. Since the lockdown he’s been kilt skating closer to his home on McGregor Lake.
No doubt about it: this year the Kilt Skate is different. No more big community gatherings, but the show has gone on! This pandemic year, SSO introduced the Great Canadian Kilt Skate – Home Edition. We’ve encouraged everyone in Canada to unleash their inner Scot by skating in their tartans and kilts, but to do it in a socially-distanced, bubble-aware way.
And to send photos and videos of their kilt skate to kiltskate@ottscot.ca.
The response has been terrific. We’ve been receiving pictures from individuals and families and we’ll be posting them on ottscot.ca and on www.kiltskate.com/blog. People are responding from across the country. Ottawa is the home of kilt skating and there have been many photos from backyard rinks and local ponds as well as the Canal Skateway. The Glengarry townships are particularly keen to defend their title as the Kilt Skate Capital of Canada. People in Montreal tend to send us pictures from community rinks. Winnipeggers have been enthusiastic about taking to the ice on their Centennial River Trail that rivals the Rideau Canal for size and scenic beauty. And on February 27, Toronto will launch a Covid version of a community event: the Great Canadian Kilt Skate Zoom & Facebook Party.
In addition to emailing photos and videos to kiltskate@ottscot.ca, we’re inviting skaters to tag their social media posts:
· #kiltskate2021OTT if you’re in Ottawa;
· #kiltskate2021GLEN if you’re in Glengarry;
· #OttScot; and
· #ScotlandIsNow.
If you’ve already sent us your photos/videos, many thanks. But please do us a favour and double check that we’ve received them. (There have been some technical glitches.) Go to the Kilt Skate Gallery on the OttScot website and see if your contributions are there. If they’re not, kindly email them to kiltskate@ottscot.ca.
Over the past two months, in spite of the pandemic, the SSO has managed to organize its OttScot Festival. The Tutored Whisky Tasting, Hogman-eh! celebration and Burns Supper have continued to thrive, and so has the Great Canadian Kilt Skate.
In fact, like so many other innovations that have emerged from the lockdowns, the Home Edition is likely to continue even after we’re all back together enjoying one another’s company in community events.
We’ll see you on the ice then. And for now, we’ll see you in the Kilt Skate Gallery.