Photo: Village of Laurium With a new ice plant, a new skate rental program, along with a new season pass offer, the Gipp Arena is seeing its highest attendance in years

LAURIUM – Skating and hockey have always been popular winter activities in the Copper Country, and Laurium has taken great strides to ensure their place in those activities, including a months-long fundraising campaign for the replacement of the ice generating plant at the Gipp Arena.

“Over the past six months, the village has worked tirelessly to ensure that ice skating, figure skating, and hockey remains a pivotal part of our community and the culture up here in the Copper Country,” Village Manager Ian Lewis said after the fundraising campaign reached its goal in April. The village’s efforts are paying off.

After installing a new ice plant last fall, offering rental skates, along with a new season pass system, the Gipp Ice Arena is seeing a major increase in use, according to Lewis.

“We changed the schedule around a bit, and attendance is fantastic,” Lewis said. “It’s the highest it’s been since I’ve been here.”

Lewis said he believes what has helped attendance is a three-hour block of public skating on Sundays from 5-8 p.m.

“People can drop off their kids and they have three hours to themselves,” he said. “We encourage parents to stay, obviously, but that three-hour block has really changed things.”

In May, Lewis announced the village initiated a new ice skate rental program during its public skating hours beginning in 2025. Funding for the new program came from a grant through the Keweenaw Community Foundation, which allowed the village to purchase 46 pairs of ice skates for the rental program. The fully-funded grant was part of the “Get Active Initiative,” which aims to create flexible and affordable avenues for residents and the neighboring community members to enjoy activities.

The Gipp now has approximately 100 pairs of rental skates available in all sizes.

Additionally, the village started offering season ice skating passes last fall. The $50 passes contain admission for 20 public skating times.

In an effort to help reduce the burden of public skating costs for individuals and families, village officials say they are excited to offer public skate punch cards this year.

“These punch cards can be purchased at the Village Hall for $50 and they can be utilized during any public skating session,” a village official said. “This is a total savings of $10.00 for the 20 sessions. You are allowed to use multiple punches on the punch card per public skating session.”