The St. Louis region has seen frigid temperatures, freezing rain and snow over the past week, causing many to stay off the roads, schools to close and stress for a lot of families.
But for Allison Cousins, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect.
As an avid member of a Facebook group that discusses outdoor skating rinks, the Tower Grove South resident knew exactly what she was going to do next. She had been waiting for this moment for years. Cousins and her partner bought a tarp and wooden boards and started building their personal ice rink on Jan. 5.
“The storm came, and it was actually kind of perfect because it was like freezing rain and slush,” Cousins said. “We had like, 2 or 3 inches of slush, and we were like, great.”
It took Cousins a couple of days to build the rink. She started with a 9-by-20-foot frame and laid a tarp over it before the storm came. Cousins used a hose to flood the rink with water a couple of times a day. She now maintains the rink with her own Zamboni — a bucket of warm water and a towel hooked to a dog leash.
The rink was a welcome surprise for Cousins’ two kids, who figure skate and play hockey. It’s an example of how St. Louisans have braved the freezing temperatures — and stayed sane — over the past couple of weeks when winter storms have brought inches of snow and ice to the region, preventing travel and closing schools.
Cousins works for City League, a nonprofit that builds on sports programs across St. Louis schools, and building the rink for her kids felt like an extension of her job. She said the past week has been difficult for parents who are trying to find ways to keep their kids occupied.
“Snow is not a reason to stop life,” Cousins said. “We have to enjoy it differently, and you have to figure out ways to do that safely. So for our family, this worked out really well.”
Her kids spent hours each day on the ice. Her 8-year-old daughter Josephine Lybarger started skating about a year ago. She spent her snow days practicing figure skating dances.
“It's the thing I just like to do the most,” Josephine Lybarger said. “It felt like I was just in a world where … it was just like all about me.”
Cousins’ 10-year-old son Knox Lybarger has been skating since he was 7. He spent his days practicing hockey drills and shooting the puck at a net on the rink.
The snowstorm meant he wasn’t able to attend his usual stick and puck or practice with the St. Louis Rockets, his youth hockey team.
“It makes me just really excited to see him out here and just brings everybody joy in our family,” she said.
Temperatures are expected to stay below freezing across the city for the rest of the week, and Cousins hopes she has at least a couple of more weeks to use the rink.
“We tried to do it last year, but we didn't get enough snow,” Knox Lybarger said. “This was like the first time we actually got enough snow in forever.”
