Introducing this month’s Skate Ontario Member Spotlight: Stratford Skating Club. Stratford SC did an incredible job hosting the 2025 Provincial Championships, and it is our privilege to feature this wonderful club this month.

Stratford SC, founded in 1938, is one of the oldest skating clubs in the country and has a long and storied history of producing great figure skaters. Donald McPherson, the 1963 World Champion, lived in Stratford and trained with the Stratford Skating Club for his entire career.

2025 Skate Ontario Provincial Championships

Over the decades, SSC has continued to inspire and develop skaters in their community. This club prioritizes the relationship between parents, coaches and skaters to create an environment that is fun, engaging, and positive while working towards the skater’s goals.

According to Kevin Winter, a coach and chair of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) at Stratford SC, “Many children and adults alike come to the SSC to learn Canada’s favourite past time. They develop a passion for the sport like the generations of skaters before them. Being a part of an organization that creates this opportunity for skaters to fall in love with the sport is a great honour. Whether skaters come to the SSC to just learn skating basics, or they wish to become great hockey players, or continue in the StarSkate program with goals in Figure Skating, we are able to provide each of these skaters with a home.”

Aside from skating excellence, SSC is also known in their community for being a wonderful place to volunteer. Kevin told Skate Ontario that volunteers were key to pulling off a successful Provincials this year.  “Our LOC had a great time planning and hosting the 2025 Skate Ontario Provincial Championships…We had a great group of volunteers to make this a very successful event. Many volunteers at the 2025 Skate Ontario Provincial Championships did multiple shifts in one day, and some were in the rink volunteering throughout the three days of the competition. As the Stratford SC hosts the Provincial Series-Stratford December Classic each December, we have a number of volunteers that have found roles in these events that they like to do each time the SSC hosts a competition.”

Kevin also credit’s the club’s coaches for playing a key role in creating the welcoming, productive and fun atmosphere at the club. All of Stratford SC’s skaters work with the entire coaching staff, allowing for skaters to become comfortable with everyone on the ice around them. Having a great team of coaches allows for skaters to have seamless instruction where all coaches and skaters understand the process and the goals that they are working to achieve. “This approach allows all stakeholders; parents, athletes and coaches to work together as one unit towards the individual goals for each skater on the ice,” he said.

2025 Skate Ontario Provincial Championships

In terms of stakeholder and community engagement, Stratford SC hosts parent meetings once per year where the coaches and skaters sit down with the parents to look at and plan for the upcoming season. Kevin told Skate Ontario, “We discuss goals and the process to help these goals to become achievable. In this way, the entire team is aware of the plan for the season.  If plans need to be updated as the season progress, for whatever reason, other meetings between the three parties are held to keep all parties on the same page throughout the season.”

Congratulations, Stratford SC! Thank you for being such a wonderful representative of our sport in your community.