Royal Glenora Club celebrates 50 Years
Edmonton proves the training base for champions
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| Jamie Salé grew up skating at the Royal Glenora Club. She and David Pelletier will skate in the club's shows later this month. (Insight Productions/CBC) |
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"It is a big collaboration of small town talent," says Cindy Shaw Savage, one of the coordinators for the skaters' reunion, which will feature the return of many skaters who have trained at the revered Canadian club since its founding in 1961.
"We all came from small towns," says world and Olympic champion Jamie Salé, who first started lessons at the Glenora when she was 10. "Back in the day, that's where everyone wanted to go. The coaching was the best in Western Canada."
When she first arrived at the Royal Glenora Club, Salé was originally planning to segue from singles skating into ice dancing, but was directed into pair skating instead. It's where she met her first partner, Jason Turner, with whom she competed at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games.
"When I first started skating there I lived in Red Deer [about 90 minutes away] and I used to commute three times a week," Salé says. "It was really special for me growing up there."
She mostly skated at night, so she rarely got to see Kurt Browning and Kristi Yamaguchi train, but in time they all became friends. Salé grew especially close to Michael Slipchuk, now the high performance director at Skate Canada. His sister was Salé's first choreographer.
After Saturday evening's show, May 21, many Royal Glenora Club alumni will attend a reunion being held at the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald in the Empire Ballroom. Savage reports that Browning has already purchased his tickets as have Olympians Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay. She's hoping Salé, Lisa Sargeant and Ravi Wali will also be in attendance. Former Canadian ladies champion Susan Humphreys has already confirmed and will be preparing a slide show.
"A lot of us that skated through the 80s are coming back to do little pieces in the show and then going onto the reunion," says Savage, who trained at the Royal Glenora Club from 1984-96. She now coaches in Stettler in Central Alberta.
"It will be a special reunion for all of us," says Salé, who still trains at the club with partner David Pelletier when she's at home in Edmonton. "I haven't seen a lot of the skaters in over a decade. It will be a really special time for all of us to get together.
"It goes to tell us how close everybody was back in the day," she adds. "We all grew up together. We had a great time when we were skating. We were little trouble makers. We have good memories and great stories to tell."
Savage and other reunion organizers have tracked down many old friends via Facebook, and now are asking people to reach out by telephone to those who haven't yet responded.
A historical committee at the Royal Glenora Club is preparing some information for those attending the reunion, including a timeline of club events. Ben Ferreira is assembling a presentation.
There will also be a speaker who'll talk about the 1980s, when the club rose to prominence.
For new memories, "We've arranged for a photo booth to be at the event," Savage says. "The photos will be printed right at the event." Babycakes Cupcakery is donating 500 cupcakes.
There will be a live jazz band during the cocktail hour and then a disc jockey the rest of the evening. Hopefully, people will bring their memories and festive spirits.
"There were people from all sorts of small towns who came into the Glenora to train and follow their dreams," says Savage. "I want to see everybody that I spent a majority of my life with from my teenage years into my early 20s. Like a high school or college reunion."
To learn more about the Royal Glenora Club show, go to http://www.royalglenora.com. For information about the reunion, go to http://rgcreunion.eventbrite.com.