Figure Skating in
Northern Ontario
Jeffrey Buttle's Mother's Day
Workshop in Sudbury Ontario
Northern
Ontario's favorite son Jeffrey Buttle took his Mom to the ballet in
Toronto the night before Mother's Day, so he could spend the day itself
with fans in Sudbury Ontario.
Jeffrey hosted another workshop for our
northern skaters at the Sudbury Skating Club. Mom, Lesley, drove north
with Jeffrey to get a chance to spend some time with her world famous
son.
Lesley Buttle is a smiling, entertaining,
and charming woman who was generous enough to spend some time sharing stories
with us of what it was like raising a world class athlete. Jeffrey was
skating by the grand old age of 18 months and has never looked back.
Lesley remembered the days living in
Timmins when she would work until midnight each Thursday, run home and
bundle little Jeff into the back seat, and head for Barrie and the
Mariposa Skating School. After driving all night she'd get Jeff there in
time to enter the school in his pj's, clean up and change, and get on
the ice to skate. (I had visions here of a thin little fellow in warm
fuzzy jammies, with footies?, being carried to the car. Sorry Jeff.☺)
Lesley had to spend the day waiting at Mariposa, then head north again that
evening. Lesley couldn't wait to get home to bed, Jeff couldn't wait to get
back next week.
The stories I've heard of the self
sacrifice in time, money, and of their own interests and goals, made by so
many parents in this sport never cease to amaze me. Jeffrey's Mom is
only one example. This is a demanding, time consuming, and very expensive
sport. Many local parents are spending upwards of 8,000-18,000 thousand
dollars per year to keep their kids on ice, and some are working
multiple jobs to do it. Rising to the level of the
Jeffrey Buttle's makes those sums look paltry. Many parents drive hours
a day to keep their kids skating. Some have learned to cook meals in
their cars! These kids don't get far without the
full support and hard work of their families.
Getting to see our world class star again
and chatting with his obviously world class Mom was a nice way to start
a Mother's Day. Thank you Jeff. And thank you Lesley!
At
right is our own world class lady, Megan, a major player in the world of figure skating fandom,
with Jeffrey Buttle.
Below are some scenes from the day.
A small Quick Time movie
of the day
