The ice in Livingston has never come easily. It has been chased from one location to the next, melted by warm winters, blown sideways by the wind that funnels through the Paradise Valley, and finally coaxed into a steel-roofed barn at the Park County Fairgrounds. On Friday, Oct. 9, the volunteers who keep it there will gather at The Attic on North Main Street for a night of live music, barbecue and auction bidding — the first-ever Rally for the Rink, a fundraiser for the Livingston Ice Skating Association.
The association, known as LISA, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2009. Its history is a lesson in persistence. The first rink went up at Water Works Park and ran successfully for two years before friction with the surrounding neighborhood forced it to close. A second site behind the Civic Center followed, but warming winter temperatures and Livingston's relentless wind made the obvious clear: a viable rink in this town would need a roof and refrigeration. For years, that seemed out of reach.
Then, in 2021, another group of ice enthusiasts approached Park County about using the Steer Barn at the fairgrounds. The county bought a set of rink boards to get the operation off the ground, and the rink has now run for multiple winter seasons under a roof — a modest but genuine triumph in a town where outdoor ice is a gamble against the thermometer. The barn, now sometimes called the Ice Barn, has become the closest thing Livingston has to a year-round winter living room.
What makes the rink unusual is its price: nothing. Admission is free, and so are the loaner skates. The association's stated mission is "building community on ice," and it means the words literally. Open skates are free. Learn to Skate with Scott, a program for all ages that teaches everything from how to fall to forward and backward strides, stops and crossovers, is free too, offered Sundays and Thursdays from 4 to 5 p.m. The rink also hosts pickup hockey, adult hockey, and a shinny session in the Steer Barn. The association has floated bigger ambitions — a figure skating club, broomball, curling, and someday a larger rink to hold the growing interest.
Getting to that point took a serious fundraising push. In 2023, LISA set out to raise $175,000 for a chiller, the refrigeration unit that would let the rink stay frozen through warm spells and stay open longer. The association announced it had exceeded the goal, crediting the Livingston Community Trust, the Park County Community Foundation, the Town Pump Charitable Foundation, the Rieschel Foundation, three anonymous individual donors, 65 donors who gave during the Give a Hoot campaign, and a matching contribution from the Park County Community Foundation. With the chiller in place, the rink's stated aim was to open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily from November through April. The association celebrated with a kickoff party at Neptune's Brewery, where it thanked the community, signed up volunteers and bought a round of beers.
That fundraising success did not end the need. The chiller is capital; keeping the lights on, the ice smooth and the loaner skates free is operating expense, and that is what the Rally for the Rink is meant to address. The association is explicit that it is "still accepting donations for operating expenses to keep the rink and loaner skates free to all."
Friday's event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at The Attic, a purpose-built music venue at 110 North Main St. that blends a preserved 1800s building with contemporary design and is engineered, in its own words, to be "acoustically correct." The Beagles will provide the live music, Follow Yer' Nose BBQ will provide the food, and a silent auction will offer items and experiences donated by local businesses and community supporters. The Park County Community Journal, promoting the event, suggested attendees get their Christmas shopping done early. Tickets are available through the association's website.
The case LISA makes for the rink is not just about recreation. In its own appeal, the association notes that Park County struggles with mental health issues and argues that physical activity, social connection and purpose are proven ways to improve the well-being of residents. The rink, in that framing, is less a sports facility than a piece of public health infrastructure — a place where, as the association puts it, countless children, families and friends congregate each day to lace up skates, meet new friends, learn new skills and shake off the winter blues.
The board members who carry this work are, by their own accounts, people who grew up on ice. President Holly Sienkiewicz, a school nurse in the Livingston School District, learned to skate in Duluth, Minnesota, where her grandmother had a rink across the street. Vice President Kris Fitzgerald grew up in Vermont skating on ponds and playing on a full girls hockey program before heading west and settling in Livingston in 2010; she owns Woods Rose Market. Treasurer Alex Russell, a commercial and residential realtor, moved to Montana in 1991 and used to keep his hockey gear in his UPS truck in Bozeman so he could play midday games at the Valley Ice Garden without his supervisor knowing.
That mix — childhood memories of pond ice, adult hockey habits, and a willingness to haul boards and apply for grants — is what has kept the rink alive through three locations and more than a decade of setbacks. The rink opens each year on Thanksgiving Day and runs until the following spring, and the association's website currently notes that it is closed for the season and will reopen on Thanksgiving Day 2026.
Which means Friday's rally is, in a sense, a preseason ritual: a community gathering before the cold arrives, to make sure that when it does, the ice will be there and the skates will be free. Admission to the rally is free, and skate rentals are included — though the skates themselves will stay at the barn until the season turns.