Learning to skate is helping these newcomers feel at home in London

Neha Gurung, an international student at Fanshawe College, was nervous tying up her skates for the first time on Friday, but her anxiety eased as she hit the ice.

She took up skating as part of a new program at StarTech.com Community Centre, formerly known as Bostwick, in London, Ont. teaching newcomers and international students how to skate in four one-hour sessions.

Motivate 2 Skate was started by Your Neighbourhood Credit Union (YNCU)  last year with a few dozen people, but now has more than one hundred participants.

Gurung arrived in Canada in September from Nepal, and heard about the program from an instructor at Fanshawe. Despite being a busy full-time student, she decided to give skating a try.

"Skating is all about learning, but it is also about how to enjoy your free time," said Gurung.

Skating with other newcomers makes her feel less alone, she added. 

"For me being an international student, I sometimes feel kind of upset…because this a new place for me [with] no family. But I am feeling so happy today because I am learning something." 

Hannah Johnson has also experienced the impact of the skating program firsthand. She immigrated to Canada in 2021 from Jamaica, and now helps out at the skating program through her work as communications specialist at YNCU.

Johnson learned how to skate last year, when Motivate 2 Skate first launched. 

While there are no specific timeline requirements for someone to be considered a newcomer, it has been well-attended by international students. 

"Many of the communities that we are based in do have a lot of international students and newcomers. We just wanted to make them feel as included as possible," said Johnson.

Each session, volunteers join newcomers on the ice to hold their arms and help them balance or help pull them up when they fall down.

"[The volunteers] are just taking a few hours out of their day to come and help us out," said Johnson. "It was fun having my co-worker teach me how to skate."

Motivate 2 Skate provides skates and helmets to participants for free. The program will run weekly on Fridays from 11 a.m. to noon until November 24.