Children and teens from all over eastern Ontario came to the figure skating clinic put on by the Eganville Figure Skating Club last Sunday.

Six-time national champion Jennifer Robinson was in attendance to help the young skaters with their spinning and jumping, as well as ballet dancer Anna Shteyngart to help work on their strength and stand development.

President of the Eganville Figure Skating Club Dana Jennings explained that this clinic could only be made possible with collaboration between the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the township of Bonnechere Valley.

“The Eganville Figure Skating Club really says thank you to those two organizations, because this would not have been made possible,” Mrs. Jennings said.

“This is the last of three clinics that we were able to offer this season, Liz Manley, a dance clinic and Jennifer, along the purchase of the jump harness, was all made through the application with the Ontario Trillium Foundation.”

The clinic gave the children a chance to learn with one of the best and the fact that it was offer in the region was the goal of the whole event.

“Today’s hope was just to give the kids skills and fundamentals to be able to do jumping and spinning,” Mrs. Jennings explained. “Sometimes hearing it from a different person other than their day-to-day coach registers that light bulb in head. Even though their coach could tell them the same thing, hearing it from a six-time national champion and an Olympian just makes the light bulb go off.

The event was free to members of the Eganville Figure Skating Club, and there was only a fee of $25 to those coming from other clubs for a whole day of dancing and skating. The day saw traveling skaters from Pembroke, Petawawa, Barry’s Bay, March-Kanata and Napanee.

“They’re getting an on-ice session with Jennifer Robinson, they’ve got off ice with our phenomenal off-ice instructor Anna, who was affiliated with Ballet Canada in New York City and in Russia, where she got her training,” she said. “We’re very pleased to have them both here in one facility and be able to provide that to the kids.”

Jennifer Robinson was excited to be in Eganville for the clinic and helping the kids with their jumping and spinning skills.

“I’m very excited about it because it’s a Sunday, so the kids don’t have to miss school, and it’s a really good chance to be able to, not change anything that the kids already have, it’s just giving them ideas on (what) might work for them,” Mrs. Robinson explained.

“I want to help them have fun and to laugh a little bit. It’s just an entertaining sort of day, but while they’re working. They don’t know that they are working as hard as they’re working.”

After they finished their one-hour skate with the Olympian, they attended a technique session with Anna Shteyngart.

“We worked on all muscle groups. That helps skaters jump, spin and hold their back, so all things that are very important for them.”

After three hours of dance, the skaters were exhausted, but they enjoyed every minute of it. Even her six-year-old son took part in both the skate and the dance classes, helping his mom with showing off the exercises.

“All of the things that we did today and before at other clinics we do at home almost every day, so he’s prepared for that,” she said.

The dancer teaches adult ballet for free in Eganville, but is putting her classes on hold since she has a baby due in June.  But long after than, she hopes that the off-ice training will continue into next season.

“I really hope that we’ll continue the off-ice next year, especially for the kids in the Eganville club, it will benefit them. Most clubs in Ottawa have off-ice sessions I found that the kids are stronger there, they jump better and the hold hands and legs better.”

The day itself means a lot to the club and its skaters, give them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with a world class athlete.

“It’s somebody that they can look up to in their sport that has been competing at a national, world and Olympic level,” said Mrs. Jennings. “She is an icon. She’s the Canadian six-time national champion.”

The connection between Mrs. Robinson and Eganville is strong, as she married a past Eganville Figure Skating Club member Shane Dennison.

“Him and I skated together,” Mrs. Jennings explained, “we were dance partners. She connected with deep roots. I would say we think of her as part of our skating family because her husband was part of our skating family, and we embrace.”

For the club president, who skated herself and watched Mrs. Robinson compete, these sessions have been a success.

“For me personally, this whole season has been phenomenal in offering these different sessions,” she explained. “I’m a skater at heart, and I think it’s like the same as the saying ‘you can take the girl out of the valley, but you can’t take the valley out of the girl’, well I think it’s the same for skating. You can take the girl out of skating, but you’ll never take the skating out of the girl.”

The club’s end of season show will take place this Sunday, April 1 at 1 p.m., but they are already looking forward to next season. They already have a stroking clinic for Nov. 18 with Gloucester Skating Club’s Darlene Joseph to help teach the kids improve their skating skills.