July 16, 2014 at 1:01 p.m.
RIA has successful takeover of bartending duties at country fest
RIA has successful takeover of bartending duties at country fest
That changed this year as the Rhinelander Ice Association (RIA) took over bartending duties from the tavern league. Brett Aylesworth, rink manager for the RIA, said the switch was very successful.
"It went excellent. It was a great first year. We had a lot of help. Our staff has been great. Our volunteers have been great," he said.
"It was awesome. It was a really great experience for us."
As soon as he heard the tavern league would no longer be handling the bartender duties, Aylesworth said he jumped at the chance to take the job.
"I had heard the tavern league wasn't doing it anymore and that they were looking for someone, so (festival organizer) Gerry (Van Harpen) got ahold of me and it seemed like a good fit," Aylesworth said.
"We coordinate volunteers all year. We're an all-volunteer organization except for my position, so we do what they needed done, which is coordinating volunteers, so it just worked out perfectly."
Though the association is not paid directly for its work, the festival did make a donation to RIA.
"The Hodag Country Festival made a donation to the Rhinelander Ice Association for providing the volunteer coordinating services and lining up all the volunteers and we also provided the supervisors for each shift, too," Aylesworth said.
That donation, along with the proceeds from the association's recent golf tournament, will help cover the costs of equipment and maintenance needed to keep the rink running smoothly.
"We have a cooling tower that needs replacing. It's about a $100,000 piece of equipment that we'll need to replace in the next couple of years. That's why we started the golf outing this year, so that will all help cover those costs," Aylesworth said.
"We'll need new Zamboni batteries in the next couple of months and that's $8,000 right there. It's just an expensive place to maintain."
Despite all the costs associated with running and maintaining the rink, Aylesworth said the goal of the association is to keep user fees at a minimum. That's why he tries to branch out whenever he can to have the association participate in events like the country festival and the golf tournament.
"Any of these fundraising events help keep the registration fees that our hockey players and figure skaters are paying as low as possible," he said.
"The more of this income we can get, the less they have to pay to skate and the cheaper it is, the more people we can get involved out on the ice."
As for next year's Hodag Country Festival, there's a good chance RIA will be at the helm at the pavilion once again.
"If Hodag will have us back, we'll be happy to be here," Aylesworth said. "It was a great experience. It was a lot of fun. Everybody was great. It was awesome."
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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