From fond memories she creates joy on ice for others

COLD ICE, WARM HEART: Carolyn Drumm, executive director of nonprofit Skate For Joy, helps Andreina Dominguez, left, and Namrita Riat out onto the ice at the Alex and Ani City Center skating rink at Kennedy Plaza in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
COLD ICE, WARM HEART: Carolyn Drumm, executive director of nonprofit Skate For Joy, helps Andreina Dominguez, left, and Namrita Riat out onto the ice at the Alex and Ani City Center skating rink at Kennedy Plaza in Providence. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

A professional skater, an entrepreneur, a founder and executive director, Carolyn Drumm – with a little inspiration from Oprah Winfrey – is sharing her passion with those less fortunate.
Drumm, of Warwick, started figure skating at the age of 12, when she decided to take what she’d learned from dancing ballet and apply it to the ice. Today, nearly four decades later, she’s founder and executive director of the nonprofit Skate For Joy, which has engaged thousands of at-risk youths through ice skating.
Drumm, who started the organization in 2001, says she wants to provide inner-city children with the same opportunity her mother – a single parent – gave her.
“My mom was a figure skater with the Providence Figure Skating Club, and I always wanted to do it, but it was too expensive. My brother and sister are both older, so when they left home it freed up some money, and I started skating,” Drumm said.
Drumm quickly excelled and began entering competitions. She spent summers training near Lake Placid and worked with skilled figure-skating coaches from Boston.
“They all imparted very important lessons on me, and it’s something I’ll cherish forever,” Drumm said.
After finishing high school, Drumm wasn’t finished skating. She heard about skating opportunity in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so she grabbed her skates, headed south and joined the cast of B-Dazzled, a cabaret-on-ice group that performed for cruise-ship voyagers at the former Palace Hotel.
She spent the next two years performing as a chorus skater and soloist. Drumm said it was an amazing experience because she was getting paid to do what she loved.
In 1985, Drumm moved to Williamsburg, Va., to continue her professional skating career. She performed in the show “America on Ice: A Tribute to Scott Hamilton,” at Busch Gardens. Her group would perform four to eight shows a day, which Drumm called “hobbling.” After her contract with America on Ice ended in 1985, Drumm moved back to her hometown of Warwick and hung up the skates for a while. Her brother introduced her to his golfing buddy, James “Jimmy” Drumm, who later became her husband.
Jimmy had just started a concrete and masonry business called J.D. Cement Work Inc. and she helped him get it off the ground. Drumm says the business allowed them to start a family and raise their two children, James, 21, and Christina, 18.
It was during that time when Drumm came up with the idea of Skate For Joy. She was home one day taking care of her children and watching TV when the idea came to her in a moment of clarity.
“My kids were little, and I was watching Oprah’s Use Your Life [Award], or whatever, about people using their talents to give back to others, and I realized I had been away from skating for a long time,” Drumm said.
Drumm took a check from J.D. Cement Work and started a skating program with eight children from the Urban League of Rhode Island. The idea quickly grew and today she runs the after-school program for 51 children, ages 5-16 years old.
Each Monday, from November to March, at-risk school-aged children come down to the Alex and Ani City Center skating rink at Kennedy Plaza in Providence, to take lessons in either figure skating or hockey.
Drumm says the organization aims to provide the opportunity to those who might not be able to afford it otherwise.
“Skating has given me so much, and it really is a great confidence builder,” Drumm said. “Because of the financial hardship of inner-city kids, a lot of them don’t have access to this type of activity.”
Drumm says skating programs can be costly and most don’t include skates, helmets, or other equipment. Skate For Joy only charges a registration fee of $25, which acts as an incentive for participation. “We weren’t charging any registration fees at the beginning, and would pay to register the kids ourselves, but we’ve found that by charging just a small amount – it really helps to get the kids to show up,” Drumm said. “They get the ice time, skates, coaches, lessons, helmets, gloves, sweatshirts, an annual holiday skate with Santa and an end-of-year awards banquet. It’s the best deal in town.”
Skate For Joy is funded through sponsors and donors. Its largest sponsor this year is Admirals Bank, which gave $5,000. Like many nonprofits, Drumm holds fundraisers to cobble together the organization’s $70,000-a-year budget, which goes toward salary, equipment costs and other expenditures.
Looking to the future, Drumm would like to see more consistency with the organization’s ice time. Currently, the nonprofit holds its lessons outside during free-skate time and shares the ice with the general public, so Drumm hopes one day they will partner with a group with inside facilities so the nonprofit can have its own time and run a longer season.
An inside facility would also protect against unpredictable Rhode Island weather, which has caused several cancelations in the past, including a couple within the last year.
“It would open the possibility to get some of these kids in competitions and even form a team. There’s a lot we could do,” Drumm said.
It’s always a work in process, but for now Drumm will continue to make do with what she has to share her joy of skating.
“I love the speed of it, the smell of the rink, the thrill of jumping and spinning through the air – you feel like you’re flying and it really gives you confidence, which is what we try to do with Skate For Joy,” Drumm said. •

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