CoachArt PARTICIPANT OSCAR B., AGE 6, FROM OAKLAND was one of many chronically ill children who had an opportunity to take to the ice during “Friday Night Ice” at the Oakland Ice Center January 20.

(Oakland, CA – January 31, 2012) — Approximately 20 chronically ill children from the East Bay area affiliated with CoachArt, an Oakland nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses, and their siblings, by providing free lessons in the arts and athletics, had an opportunity to try ice skating and other ice-related activities, during “Friday Night Ice” at the Oakland Ice Center on January 20.
In partnership with Special Skaters, a program affiliated with United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of the Golden Gate, and with volunteers to help the skaters from San Francisco-based EventBrite, CoachArt’s participants were able to experience ice skating, many for the first time. They also had fun playing games such as mini Olympics, kite flying on the ice and broom ball. “It’s always a thrill to see our students experience an activity like ice skating that’s new and exciting,” said Ashley Fontanetta, regional director of CoachArt’s Oakland office. “United Cerebral Palsy is one of our health care partners and when we reached out to their Special Skaters program at the Oakland Ice Center, they went out of their way to accommodate our group and provide a fun and engaging night of skating complete with bubble blowing on the ice and a pizza party!”

EventBrite, a San Francisco-based company that enables people all over the world to plan, promote, and sell out any event; discover events, and share the events they are attending with the people they know, organized 15 staff members to volunteer by assisting the skaters. “We couldn’t have had a successful experience on the ice without the aid of the EventBrite volunteers who helped with everything from assisting the children on the ice, to organizing the pizza party,” Fontanetta continued. “CoachArt’s volunteers are the backbone of our programs. We rely on their assistance to allow us to offer the wide variety of programs that help chronically ill children take their minds off of their illness and just have fun.”

CoachArt’s mission is to improve the quality of life for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses and their siblings, by providing free lessons in the arts and athletics. CoachArt matches volunteer mentors with its students to provide lessons based on the child’s preferred activity.

For the past ten years, CoachArt has served more than 2,500 children and has managed 15,000 donated volunteer hours consisting of 665 volunteers, and more than 78 program partners. To find out how to become involved with CoachArt as a volunteer mentor, or to take part in the activities, please visit www.CoachArt.org or call 510-992-3485.