Fun and maintenance: The work behind ETSU's seasonal ice-skating rink

This story is featured in the Feb. 25, 2026 edition of Healthy Living. Click here to read the whole section. East Tennessee State University's ice-skating rink made its annual return in 2025, having students and community members alike enjoy the month-long season for the winter activity. The rink's opening day typically runs with the university's holiday lighting ceremony and continues into December. Leah Adinolfi, dean of Student Engagement, said the opening night of the rink always presents a fun activity for any person to enjoy, with a mix of college students, young kids and adults enjoying the rink alongside the holiday cheer. "We started a few years ago and just found it's a way to keep people engaged and give them some extra fun things to do," she said. "It's really just a community-building event. We see hundreds and hundreds of community [members] and students come out for that event." The rink is also a sustainable way to have fun, Adinolfi said. She explained because the rink is synthetic, it presents an "eco-friendly" option for people to participate in because it does not need power, water or refrigeration equipment to continuously resurface the ice. "Ice is a little more difficult in our climate – not that it can't be done, it's just a little more difficult," Adinolfi said. "We selected to purchase a synthetic rink that is made of a material called 'glice'. It is as slippery – if not more slippery, honestly – than ice." Alongside the faux ice is its maintenance. Adinolfi shared the rink needs to be swept and vacuumed to remove debris from the surface. It also needs to be mopped occasionally and power washed annually. The skates used on the rink can also vary. While participants are welcomed to use their own skates for the rink, the university also provides a pair for those who have none. Adinolfi said any metal ice skates work with the rink, but because of its synthetic material, more frequent sharpening could be needed. "We are constantly resharpening the skates because they do get dull over time," she said. "Our campus recreation staff who actually run the rink are the ones who maintain those skates throughout the season." The rink has also seen a steady turnout from people since it was first brought to ETSU four years ago. Adinolfi said throughout the week, most of the rink's skaters are usually students, while the weekends see more families enjoying the winter activity. However, she said the biggest challenge when the holidays roll around is letting the community know the rink is open beyond the university's student body, encouraging potential participants to take part in the rink's availability. "I'm not sure how many folks in the community realize that it is open to them," Adinolfi said. "We've been trying to push that word out and make sure that folks know that it's available not just to our ETSU students or faculty and staff, but that it's meant to be a community-engagement event."