I love raising my family in the same town as where I grew up. One of the benefits is sharing places that hold a special place in my heart from my youth. With that said, I don’t think there is another place in the area that bring more childhood memories than roller skating at United Skates of America in Seaford.
Roller Skating Rink Nostalgia
From the yellow postcard inviting me to a roller skating birthday party in the 90’s to the “Skateasaurus” to the square piece of pizza and skating around the rink to a favorite request (“Shout” by Tears for Fears) there are so many memories that pop into my head.
Second Generation Roller Skating Obsession
When my daughter attended her first birthday party at the skating rink, four years ago, I could not believe that the place was exactly the same! I felt like I walked into a time warp from my youth. The skating bug officially bit my daughter – and she never looked back. She got roller skates for the holidays that year, followed by in-line skates for her birthday a few months later. Then, we started giving out skates to her friends as birthday presents. Living in a cul-de-sac helped her hone her skills. On most days you can find her outside skating in circles.
When it was time to plan her birthday party that year, there was no question where she wanted to have it. Luckily, she has an equally skating obsessed best friend. Together, we rented out the rink for a private birthday party and had the whole place to ourselves! It was ah-maaaazing!
This little sk8r grl is now in 4th grade, the last grade of elementary school in our district. The end of this year culminates with celebrations discussed for all of elementary school. As you can imagine, with Covid-19 halting all of these school functions, she was pretty bummed. Enter United Skates of America.
Community Involvement and Bringing the Roller Skating Rink to You!
As a fan, I have been on its email list for years. It has been my pleasure to share United Skates’ community-oriented programs on my Facebook page, helping spread its tremendously generous programs – including free passes for teacher and first-responders. Then, I got the email of all emails —since you can not go to them right now, they will come to you. Yep! You can now rent a skating floor (and all the accouterments) for your home – right on your very own driveway or patio.
The moment I read this I knew a private, home skating party, would blow any sadness out of her mind from missing her 4th grade festivities. Luckily, I was 10,000,000% correct!
It was a breeze working with United Skates of America to set this up. They arrived with all the items needed and set up the custom skating rink in about an hour. Since they have interlocking floor pieces they were able to customize it to fit my driveway exactly. Then they set up all of the skates (including the Fisher Price over the shoe ones for my four-year-old), the Skate Mates, and a WiFi enabled sound system with a pre-loaded three hour playlist. All of this is yours for five full hours!
The miracle of the day was that my kids played in the basement the entire time they were setting up the floor. They had no idea what has coming! With bubbling excitement, I called them outside. Their faces were priceless when they saw it. My daughter announced it was “the coolest thing they have ever seen”.
It Was “The Best Day Ever”
It was an absolutely fantastic day. The kids skated, and skated, and skated. Broke for dinner, and skated a little more as the sun set. As I watched I thought how cool it would be for an “after dark” rink set up with glow sticks – thank goodness they have that on the horizon (no pun intended).
As they came to collect the floor, my daughter skated to “The Last Dance” by Donna Summer (because I’m hilarious). I thanked the United Skates staff profusely for thinking outside of the box, for helping parents properly celebrate milestones right now, and for being creative.
Breaking down the floor took much less time and my kids looked forlornly as the workers drove away. My daughter turned to me and said “I don’t think there is anything you could have done for me that would have been cooler than that. Thank you SO SO SO much.” Above all, as a parent, that is the best thing to hear. I was so happy. Not to mention it was an ENTIRE day of an activity for all three of them that kept them interested for five hours straight! Roller skating to the rescue!
A Whole Menu of “At Home” Roller Skate Experiences!
Luckily, the party continued a week later for her as two elementary schools in our district came together to offer the graduating 4th graders an end of year Virtual Glow Dance Party. For this zoom dance party – United Skates of America had an MC and DJ and song dedications from the teachers. Plus, all kind of things that light up and flash! I am so grateful to them for putting this together and once again thinking of a creative way to celebrate these kids. The whole family had a blast dancing on the driveway as we projected it onto the fence. If you ask my children, they would say I had the most fun.
Likewise, United Skates of America stepped up and created several at-home options. These include Curbside Pick-up with LOL Dolls and Minions, 4th of July Glow to Go, and their Glow Dance Party.
For more information on any of the things above, please reach out to Jen at jsimonettiskate@gmail.com and be sure to tell her The Mint Chip Mama sent you!
**Giveaway**
Win a Family 4-Pack of FREE Admission Passes to United Skates of America!
To win, please comment below with your favorite rollerskating memory!
Winner will be chosen Friday, July 3rd at 1pm.
I fondly remember getting together with friends in the ’80s to roller skate the night away to popular music of the decade, and more recently I have very fond memories of taking my daughter to skate in United Skates a few times in the past couple of years along with her friends. Great memories, all of them!
I remember going roller skating as a child. I also took my 3rd grade students there for a Force and Motion field trip. Kids got to roller skate. It was so much fun! I would love to set this up for my own children at home too!
I remember having my birthday parties at roller skating—loved wearing my neon clothes and having it glow!!!
Congratulations! You win the family 4-pack of admission passes! Please email me at themintchipmama@gmail.com so we can get the passes to you! 🙂 Happy 4th!
Every Friday night while in 8th grade, my friends and I would go roller skating at The Rink in New Rochelle. It was fun skating and learning new moves to the music alongside friends.
This is an awesome idea! Always enjoyed taking kids to United Skates.