Lang’s hockey cathedral thriving a year after drawing international attention

A year after the Village of Lang saw its local arena go viral around the world on social media, the rink is now thriving.

Last year, someone skating at the arena in Lang posted a video of two men walking down some steps to reach the ice surface so they could play in their men’s league game.

In the video, the stairs had to be lowered via a pulley system that wasn’t working as planned, so it nearly knocked the two men off the stairs as they were trying to force the staircase onto the ice.

The video raised eyebrows and people were stunned by the fact the players had to take stairs from the top of the building to the ice surface. It’s something you almost never see in a hockey rink.

Over the following days, the arena gained international attention.

The viral success led rink organizers to launch a GoFundMe page to help raise money for the rink so they could ensure the nearly 100-year-old barn could remain standing.

Mike Williams organized that GoFundMe campaign and is a member of the board that helps operate the rink. He said the money has been put to good use.

“It’s been absolutely huge for our little rink,” he said. “We’ve spent a good chunk of it. We’ve raised a lot of funds and had a lot of supplies and stuff donated as well. It’s gone a long way.

“We’ve been wanting to revamp the kitchen and do a lot of plumbing work for quite some time, so it kickstarted that really well for us,” Williams added. “We did a big plumbing revamp, put in some new water heaters that were donated, (a) new pump to flood the ice (and) all-new bathroom fixtures and toilets. We did a major kitchen renovation and made it up to the modern code and we put a new sign on the rink.

“The rink’s come a long way in a short period of time.”

More than $27,000 was raised from the GoFundMe page, and other equipment donations from the surrounding community also trickled in.

Williams suggested the renovations they were able to do to the rink probably wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the rink going viral.

“It’s hard to say. Traditionally speaking, just keeping the lights on in the building is kind of the amount of funds we raise on a yearly basis in donations and fundraisers,” he said.

“With the cost of everything going up these days with power and supplies and energy, it’s basically been trying to stay afloat. Some of this stuff was put on the back burner for the a lot of years, so it couldn’t have gone any better for us.”

Williams said they have some money left from their renovations, but added that money will be used to make sure the rink keeps running.

“We’re always going to continue to have our little fundraisers and just try to keep afloat. It’s nice to put a little bit of funds back in the nest there and make sure we’re OK for a few more years,” Williams explained.

Williams thanked everyone who donated and added he can’t believe how much support the rink has received over the past year.