Continuing its tradition of giving back to the community, Castleview Hospital is preparing to host its annual ‘Free Community Skating Day’ on Saturday, Jan. 25. Kari Fox from Castleview Hospital called into the KOAL newsroom to discuss the event and the importance of giving back to the community.

“This is an annual event that we’ve been doing, weather permitting, of course, and we just love to give back to the community in ways that are outside of our hospital walls,” explained Fox, opening our discussion.” Our mission is making communities healthier, and one of the ways that we can help make our community healthier is to get people out of their houses in the winter and get them active and create those core memories with their family and friends, and ice skating is a great way to do that.”

Fox then dove into what attendees of the event should expect,” they can come any time between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. We will provide free skate rentals, so even if you don’t own ice skates, we will have some there for you, all of the different sizes for men, women and kids. We’ll also be providing some sustenance. So we’ll have some hot dogs, we’ll have some chili, we’ll have hot chocolate, we just want to keep you warm.”

Explaining further Castleview’s belief in giving back to the community, Fox stated,” I think that it’s really important for people to understand that we live here. Our lives are part of this community, and so we like to integrate into the community.” She added,” We’re not just providing a service. We’re not just a business. This is where we live, too. This is where we play. This is where we recreate. And just being part of that and interweaving ourselves with the community helps to humanize and help us participate in ways that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise when we’re inside the hospital caring for our patients.”

In closing, Fox shared,” Please come and join us. We just really look forward to seeing people out there and watching them have some fun with their family and friends.”

Castleview Hospital’s ‘Free Community Skating Day’ will be held on Saturday, Jan. 25 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Carbon County Skate Pond at 660 Fairgrounds Way in Price.