For Immediate Release:

January 2, 2007

Contact:  Dean Vrooman – Phone & Voice Mail:  (503) 238-6368 (Ext. 16)

Sherwood Ice Arena to Sponsor Three Skates with the Winter Hawks

            Thanks to the Hawks new practice facility, Sherwood Ice Arena, Winter Hawks fans will have three chances to skate on the ice with Winter Hawks players in the next month.

Sherwood Ice Arena, the Northwests premier skating rink, will sponsor post-game skates in Memorial Coliseum after Portlands two upcoming afternoon games.  On Monday January 15, the Hawks will play the Spokane Chiefs on Martin Luther King Jr.s birthday and on Monday February 19, the Hawks will host Kyle Bailey and the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Presidents Day. Both games start at 2:00 since they occur on school holidays.  Immediately following both games, fans that bring their own skates will be allowed to skate on the Memorial Coliseum ice for free with one-third of the Winter Hawks team.  The rest of the team will be available for autographs.  The game will end about 3:45 and fans will be allowed to skate from approximately 4:00 to 5:00 on each of these dates if they bring their own ice skates with them to the game.

We wanted to sponsor these events since it ties in so well with the school holidays and  provides a great way to promote ice skating and family fun, which is what we are all about at Sherwood Ice Arena, said General Manger Bob Knoerl.  In addition, we realize that everyone does not have their own ice skates, so we wanted to give Hawks fans a chance to skate with players at Sherwood Ice Arena, too, as part of our public session on Sunday February 4.

One-third of the Winter Hawks team, along with team mascot, Tom-a-Hawk, will be at Sherwood Ice Arena from approximately 2-3:30 as part of the public session that runs from 1:00-4:00.  The cost of the session is $6.50 per person, including free skate rental. 

Each Winter Hawks player will be scheduled to participate in one of the skate parties with fans.  The Hawks will release a list of which players will be scheduled to skate at each of the appearances as the dates get closer.