Stephanie Goins had never ice skated before. Neither had her children — Jadyn, 13, and Jordyn, 9. And her husband, Dustin, had done it just once — 20 years ago.

So, as one might imagine, there may have been a moment of timidness when they laced up the skates and took to Olde Town on Friday afternoon.

“A little nervous,” Stephanie admitted.

That, however, didn't stop the family from trying anyway.

In no time at all, the Olde Town residents found their footing quite nicely in a brisk November afternoon, the first group to skate the synthetic ice skating rink located in Town Square.

It was like, as Dustin said, roller skating.

“Basically, I just tell myself to take it easy and not go crazy and I'll be fine,” Dustin said.

As for the kids, it was fun, if not a bit painful.

“It hurts my ankles a lot,” Jadyn said. But it was worth it.

Having an ice rink has been a dream for some time, said Joe Hengstler, Executive Director of the Olde Town Arvada Business Improvement District. Given all the challenges that 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic have presented, Hengstler reasoned that this was the perfect time to bring a little joy to the community for the holiday season.

“With the pandemic still continuing on, our goal was to provide a safe, fun outdoor activity that people come out for,” Hengstler said.

The 40x40 rink, which will be up through the beginning of January, was constructed by All Year Sports Galaxy, a synthetic ice skating rental company based in Wheeling, West Virginia. Hengstler said that the rink arrived Wednesday night and was set up in time for Friday's opening.

In addition to ice skating, Olde Town Square played host to a Holiday Pop-Up Market, where local businesses could entertain another avenue to reach consumers.

“Something else we wanted to do this year was to provide an additional opportunity for Olde Town retailers or Olde Town businesses to kind of come out,” Hengstler said. “This provides another opportunity to see some of the businesses you might miss or to conduct retail outside or commerce outside if you're not comfortable going inside. The more that we can highlight them the better.”

One of those businesses was Electric Cherry Shop & Studios. Ally Skiba opened the shop, which sells locally produced art, jewelry, prints and more in January, mere months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“COVID has been a challenge,” Skiba said. But pop-up events in Olde Town, like this one, has provided an “opportunity to be safe, wear a mask and still support small businesses.”

Skiba's business neighbor, Flying Pig Burger Co., knows that all too well. Construction work in Olde Town has hampered business, but events such as this one present another opportunity to get eyes on their business that it otherwise might not get.

“This is kind of one way to get people's attention back on us,” Karas said. “People will come in and say that it's hard to find us, hard to find parking. But this lets us show people that we're still around while also helping out the community.”

The ice skating rink will be open daily, 2-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and noon to 9 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The cost is $8 for adults and $5 for kids 10 and under for an hour and online reservations are required. Masks are required and social distancing will be enforced with no more than 12 skaters on the ice at a given time.