Hot action on the ice at the Roanoke Civic Center’s skating sessions [The Roanoke Times, Va.]

Dec. 27--Anthony Covington eyed the cheery ice skaters as he stood next to a sign with bold letters: "Skate at your own risk."

"The little kids -- they don't have any fear," Covington observed. "Me? I'm going to make sure my insurance is paid up and go later on."

Covington, 52, staffed the Roanoke Civic Center's public ice skating session Monday, ensuring that skaters were safe and obeyed the facility's rules.

The civic center hosts the public skating sessions annually in December and January, when school-age children are out of classes and have little else to do. For $7, attendees get admission to the rink and a pair of rental skates.

"I guess people go to the movies," Covington said. "But the whole family can do this for real cheap. It wears the kids out good, too."

Monday's afternoon session drew several hundred to the rink the day after Christmas, such as Tom Selvey, 32, of Roanoke, who brought his son Carter Selvey, 5.

The elder Selvey wore a hockey helmet while Carter donned a bicycle helmet.

"I make him wear a helmet because I play and ref in an adult league and I've seen people fall backward on the ice," Tom Selvey said. "I told him, 'If you wear a helmet, I'll wear a helmet.'"

Heather McCracken, 22, of Rocky Mount, found protection in the hands of her boyfriend, Jacob Worley, 21.

It was her first time ice skating, she said, and his second.

"I'm more of a Rollerblader," McCracken said. "I haven't let go of his hand all day."

Nearby, Norma Coulling, 53, of Roanoke, watched with a beaming grin as granddaughter Madelynn, 4, skated between her father and his girlfriend.

"I think she would much rather they just pull her along," Coulling said. "But she's trying."

Across the rink, Olivia Burnette, 7, wore a black ruffled dress with sparkles as she took a break and removed her skates.

"She's trying to learn to tie them herself," said Christian Burnette, Olivia's father.

The elder Burnette said he's brought his daughter to ice skate from Rocky Mount every year as a "daddy-daughter day."

"I wish they had this year around," Burnette said. "I don't want to fight the return lines at the malls."

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