FILE PHOTO

Four days ago, the owners of Skateland announced that financial difficulties may cause the decades-old Lockport staple to close. In the four days since, community support has been obvious.

According to a statement on the Skateland Facebook page, "We have had a difficult financial struggle over the past two decades, as most roller skating rinks have. We have been making progress but perhaps not quickly enough. We want to keep and run Skateland for the rest of our lives. ... Our immediate struggle is coming up with a sizable city property tax payment by the beginning of May to prevent a foreclosure."

The city Treasurer's office says that  $56,700 must be paid prior to May 16 or foreclosure proceedings will begin.
"If anyone has any ideas/suggestions of how our struggling 'mom & pop' business can get through this hurdle, please feel free to post," Skateland's Facebook post suggested.

People certainly had suggestions. In the days since, the post has received 232 comments and 435 people shared the plea for help. Suggestions included requests for leniency, fundraisers, and pricing changes. There were also scores of memories shared.

Another Facebook post later that day said "As for your fantastic ideas of fundraising, that will be considered but was not our first intention. Please just come and visit us soon & enjoy quality time with your kids. I will exhaust all other resources before asking anyone for money out of their pocket in donation form."

Monday morning the owners posted again: "Loving all the ideas and offers to help! Here's what you can do that could just save us. Bring yourself or your family in to skate, play Laser Tron and say hi to us as often as possible in the next 8 weeks. If we had an additional 1,000 admissions of $10 each every week, we'd have more than what we need to pay our tax bill. I will consider additional ideas as well, but that is the easiest short term solution."

That didn't prevent people from offering help anyway.

A Zumbathon is planned for March 27. Presale tickets are available for $15 per person or $25 per family. Tickets at the door of the 6 p.m. event will be $20 for individuals and $35 for family. There will also be 50/50 tickets and a basket raffle.

D&T Graphics donated a box of more than 100 t-shirts, which Skateland will be offering for sale at the rink. They're suggesting a donation of $20 per shirt, which will go directly to the businesses city property tax bill.

Skateland is also taking some of the public's suggestions, offering a "Bargain Night Wednesday" with reduced admission and $2 skate rentals $2, plus $2 single 6-minute sessions of LaserTron.

They're planning an "Old School Skate Reunion" on a Friday night from 11:30 p.m to 1:30 a.m. and are figuring out details for a LaserTron Tournament.

It remains to be seen if Skateland can come up with the $56,700 to pay their tax bill in time, but if not, it won't be due to lack of effort or community support.

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