WINTERFEST

to enjoy.

Samantha Dhyne, the director of programming and communication with CCMRD, explained that last year was the rst o cial Winterfest, but it was more of a trial run for some aspects.

“We did a very, very small hockey tournament last year,” she said. “We knew we wanted to do another tournament this year.” is year, the tournament featured 12 teams competing for gift cards to Cabin Creek Brewing, awarded to rst through third place. All the players who entered got a commemorative shirt, cup, a free meal and beer. e ice was pretty good for being hand scraped, though. Hockey players zoomed across the ice in pursuit of putting the puck in the small areas of either side of the constructed goals. e competition had multiple o cials from the recreation center keeping time and score, and multiple matches were going on simultaneously.

Next year, Dhyne said she hopes to see the event grow to 32 teams in the tournament.

“I think we built a really good base,” she said.

Dhyne said that CCMRD has been working to plan events outside of Idaho Springs, since that’s where the recreation center is located. is is one of those endeavors. CCMRD sta wants to include the entire Clear Creek community in events with CCMRD.

Jenn Jordan, the events and marketing manager for Georgetown, said she sees events like this as an opportunity to draw people to the town and get them to stay a while.

Jordan was pleased with the turnout and heard positive comments from people in attendance. She said the town has already begun looking into getting a Zamboni for future events on the ice.

Ultimately, the pond hockey tournament came down to a battle between the team from Hideaway Park Brewery in Winter Park and the Open Borders team from Denver. After an intense match on the ice that left at least one player with a bloody lip, Open Borders came away with the win, with an end score of 15-11.

“Big thanks to Georgetown and the rec district,” said Julian Talavera, team captain for Open Borders.