WSU, UI club hockey teams coming to valley for fundraiser to ‘Save LC Ice’

LC Ice Arena is in jeopardy.

The board of LC Ice Arena in Lewiston came to the conclusion at the beginning of the year that the chiller, which keeps the ice cool, has gotten too tough to maintain, so it is time to replace or repair it.

The Lewis Clark Amateur Hockey Association realized it needed to start a big fundraising effort to keep LC Ice Arena alive.

So it created an event called “Save LC Ice,” an all-day open house event Saturday at the arena that will have food trucks, live music, games, free skating for all, adult beverages and a hockey game between the Washington State and University of Idaho club programs.

Festivities will begin at noon with the puck drop for the hockey game set for 6 p.m. Tickets for the game are $15 and can be purchased in advance at lcaha.com or in person at the rink. The website also has a form for those who want to donate directly to the arena.

Andrea Jolliff is part of the arena’s chiller committee and is helping put together the fundraising event. She said that LC Ice Arena is very important to the community and that’s why they need to keep it alive.

“The chiller committee is comprised of parents who got together and decided this is a really meaningful thing,” Jolliff said. “We can see how important it is for our community. The people that know about it absolutely love it, and we can see how important it is for our kids and how much they enjoy it.”

The chiller acts like a generator to maintain the ice, but it is 37 years old and is not working very well, Jolliff said. The overall cost of a new or used chiller ranges from $450,000-$600,000.

With no more chiller, comes no more ice rink.

The all-day “Save LC Ice” event will start at noon with the free skate rentals, and have games throughout the day, including a slapshot competition. There will be a silent auction and a raffle for a donated Seekins rifle with the winner announced between the second and third period of the hockey game.

WSU and UI will play a full three periods but will play 3-on-3 rather than 5-on-5 for an exhibition game.

“A bunch of family friendly activities during the day and at night, but the big closer of the night is going to be the WSU and Idaho game,” Jolliff said.

The Lewis Clark Amateur Hockey Association wants to keep LC Ice Arena alive because it hosts about 90 hockey players — a mix of boys and girls — across seven hockey teams. The teams range from U8 to U18. The arena holds practices, tournaments and games from October through March.

It also hosts public skating, late night skates and adult drop-in hockey.

In addition, it recently partnered with Lewiston Parks and Recreation to hold hockey clinics, which included three different sessions that were five weeks long. Ages ranged from 4 to 10 years old and some of the clinic attendees joined the hockey teams.

On any given week, the arena hosts more than 200 people for public skates and their hockey programs throughout the season.

“Hopefully, the event is a big hit and everybody that comes out has a great time. The people that already know it’s a fun place to be, I hope they have fun,” Jolliff said. “I anticipate that some people will be experiencing it for the first time, and maybe we’ll make lifelong patrons just from this event.”

Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, tjunt@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @TrevorJunt.