Oct. 14 – Interskate 88, Oneonta’s roller skating rink, hosted its fourth annual Skate for Wellness event Monday, Oct. 14, to raise awareness for local social support services.
The community event, organized by Rehabilitation Support Services, was intended to bring the public together to raise awareness and provide educational information and conversations about local support groups within the active sphere of skating, laser tag and raffles, according to a news release.
RSS provides community-based mental health and substance abuse services, including housing and employment assistance, according to its website.
“It took our RSS team and volunteers two months to organize our event,” Shari Stallone, RSS senior program coordinator, said Monday. “We purposely kept this day a holiday because young children are out of school and more families can come and learn and participate.”
October 14 is Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. Many students have the day off from school, and many businesses and most government offices are closed for the holiday.
“Our Interskate 88 event is great because we have organizations making their information available to local groups like Mobile Crisis Center, Family Resource Network and Oneonta Bagel Company,” Stallone said. “There is no charge to attend the event. This is an educational activity and to introduce people to the services we have in our beautiful city of Oneonta.”
Stallone said it is not only a way of learning, but also engaging and fun.
“The lottery is something that everyone loves,” Stallone said. “Children and families must go through at least six of the educational stations where groups have information on their tables and get their stamp card stamped to qualify for a free raffle ticket and show that they have learned something, and then they can enter to go. raffle.”
The raffle included gift certificates from several sponsors, including tours and gifts from the Farmers’ Museum and Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, movie tickets from Southside Mall Cinema and Green Toad Bookstore, among others.
Family Planning of Central New York had the largest number of young people around the table at 10:30 a.m. asking for information
“Just like the family planning table, the overall effort here at this event is to let people know that we are here in this city,” said Denise Oliver, community advisor for the Mobile Crisis Center. “We cover four counties: Otsego, Delaware, Chenango and Schoharie. We provide support to children and families, especially mental health issues.”
Oneonta Thrives had a table of four young people and two parents reviewing the information presented and several curious onlookers slowly rolled by on rented skates.
“We are mostly all volunteer organizations here and we want people to know that we provide resources to the Oneonta region,” said Sean Mundas, a community worker with Oneonta Thrives.
Stallone said the event has grown over the past four years and many sponsors have come in to support it.
“We started in a pandemic year, but even then people showed up,” she said. “About 140 people came through most of the children and then through the parents. We bring forward the education and awareness of so many organizations in this community and our sponsorship support has helped make this possible. It is very important to achieve, not only for RSS, but also for all the organizations that are here today.”
Founded in 1981, Interskate 88 is a 20,000-square-foot facility for roller skating, laser tag, stage performances and other activities located at 5185 State Route 23.
Kathleen Gasperini, staff writer, can be reached at kgasperini@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7206.
