The Paradise Ice Rink was set to open last year on November 9. But, of course, the day before the Camp Fre would destroy Paradise, Concow, parts of Magalia and Butte Creek Canyon.
The fire delayed the ice rink’s opening by a month. This year, the ice rink opened the day before the first anniversary of the Camp Fire.
Lorrennis Leeds, who now operates the ice rink says that it has become a place of normalcy for Paradise residents still on the Ridge and in the area.
“I hope that as people see that we are rebuilding that they will see that this rink is staying,” Leeds said. “It is a sense of normalcy — especially if they coming here on a weekend. I have people from Oroville, come back here to skate. ”
Leeds says that of 22 rink employees they had last year just 11 remain there. But even with that, she feels further ahead than last year. “I have had a lot more preparation for this, this year,” she said. “Because I have been more of the backbone. Last year I just did the scheduling.”
Leeds noted that the only thing that will close the rink is a hard rain — and a power safety shutoff. She notes that currently, they are opening at noon — which is a good time for adults who wants some quiet time skating.
Thursday’s soft opening didn’t have a lot of visitors in the early afternoon, but what one of the employees, Leeds’s daughter Caitlihn Hogue, 16, was there.
She was on the ice skating by herself. A far happier place, then where she was on Nov. 8 — stuck in Magalia with no way out, no car.
Hogue said she was fine until she lost power.
“I was worried because I lost all contact with everyone,” she said, adding a Butte County Sheriff Deputy got her about 8 p.m. “They wouldn’t grab anything, except my living needs.”
Leeds was working at Youth For Change. at the time and was helping evacuate get six at-risk youth. After she did that she made the effort to get to Magalia.
She spent the rest of the day trying to get in touch with her daughter and get up to Magalia. But she never got there. The last thing she told Hogue was not to leave with neighbors because she was on her way.
Soon after, the cell tower went down and that was the last she spoke to her daughter until they re-connected that night in Oroville.
Now a year later, Leeds is committed to making the Ice Rink a permanent fixture on the Ridge.
