Benefield: 7-year-old Sebastopol skater earns solo spot at Scott Hamilton charity ice show in Santa Rosa

It was maybe five years ago now, when Emily Conner recalls being awakened in the middle of the night and hearing, via the baby monitor, her young daughter making babbling noises in her room.

Earlier, she recalled, she and her husband Chris had let their young daughter watch the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Conner listened closely, trying to make out what her daughter was saying.

Then it became clear.

“Abby skate. Abby skate,” she heard her daughter say.

So when her daughter was 20 months old, Emily Conner signed her up for a toddlers on ice session.

“I took her to one and she just took off,” she said.

Today, some five years after Abigail woke Emily and Chris Conner with her dreams of skating, the now 7-year-old will be featured in a solo at the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer Celebration Ice Show at Snoopy’s Home Ice Saturday night in Santa Rosa.

She’ll perform to Meghan Trainor’s “Better When I’m Dancing” but it’s how she got the gig that is the real story.

“I raised money,” Abigail said. “I made a lot of money.”

More than $3,300 to be exact.

“It’s a good cause,” she said.

Abigail, who lives with her family in Sebastopol, collected eggs and vegetables from the family garden, did some baking with her mom, set out jams and salsas her mom made, and set up a farm stand on the road in front of their house.

She told all comers she was selling goods to raise money for cancer awareness and that donations were graciously accepted.

“Well, there was three tables and like a pop up over our table because on the first day it rained,” she said. “We had produce and cookies and Rice Krispies.”

Abigail gave a particular shout-out to the Conners’ neighbor, a guy who answers to the name “Mr. Gene,” who is a big fan of the Conners’ baked goods.

“We have this neighbor named Mr. Gene who loves Cowboy Cookies and took all of the Cowboy Cookies,” Abigail said.

Made with chocolate chips, coconut, oatmeal, pecans, who could blame him?

From those goods, Abigail pulled in more than $3,300, making her the biggest local fundraiser for the Sk8 to Elimin8 event. And with that honor comes the prize of skating a solo in Saturday night’s show.

“I felt surprised because I’m a littler girl than the other people, so I was like ‘How was a little girl able to raise that much money?’” she said. “I had to sit in a tall chair so people could see me.”

Emily Conner, who pitched in, said she was impressed by her daughter’s effort.

“She’d go out to our chicken coop and get eggs and pick tomatoes or cucumbers or whatever we had fresh,” she said. “She would literally sit at the farm stand, open at 8 and work until 1 or 2, taking donations only.”

“She’d bag them up for you,” she said. “She rocked it really.”

Other top local earners were Victoria Chandler, Anna Freeman, Luna Yano-Granero and Claren Luk, who are all between 6-12 years old and who will also get solo time on the ice in the show.

Which means solo and group performances at Saturday night’s show will not only be star-studded, but hyper local.

And entirely unique.

“This is not a touring show,” said Kim Navarro, skating director at Snoopy’s Home Ice and a former U.S. national team ice dancer, of Scott Hamilton’s event. “Every show looks different.”

In addition to Abigail Conner and her gaggle of young fundraisers, the show will feature the likes of heavy hitters like Olympians Jason Brown, Polina Edmunds, Jeremy Barrett, Jeremy Abbott, and U.S. National champ Ryan Bradley.

Navarro and partner Brent Bommentre, who together earned five top five finishes in the U.S. Nationals, will also perform Saturday.

“All of the pros donated their performance,” Navarro said. “It’s amazing.”

And in the world of skating these are big names doing big performances for the cause, Navarro said.

Perhaps none bigger, at least to Abigail’s way of thinking, than Jason Brown.

“She’s enamored by him,” Emily Conner said.

“We are so thrilled that Jason Brown is coming,” Navarro said. “He is so in demand. He’s one of the nicest humans that we have in the sport and on the planet.”

And locals can thank, in part, Abigail for Brown’s signing on.

Turns out that a group skating trip from Sonoma County to see Brown and others in Stars on Ice last spring led to a serendipitous Q&A session with the star.

Seems that Abigail raised her hand, was called on and promptly put Brown on the hot seat.

“They were doing this thing where there were two skaters and they call on somebody to ask him a question and I said, ‘Would you come skate at Snoopy’s Home Ice?’” Abigail said. “And he said yes.”

Last year, a show benefiting Hamilton’s organization was held in conjunction with the 100th birthday of Charles “Sparky” Schulz.

“Sparky’s Ice Spectacular,” raised $190,000, according to Kim Brack Volante, national outreach manager for Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation.

“We set our goal for $50,000 and we have already exceeded that,” she said of this weekend’s lineup.

Net proceeds from Saturday’s event, as well as for the Frozen 5K at the ice rink on Sunday, will be split between a UCLA study of pediatric glioblastoma and local Providence Health cancer programs, Volante said.

So as Saturday approaches, the top fundraiser is again hard at work

But at this point she’s not selling Cowboy Cookies and salsas at her family farm stand, but working on her solo routine with her long time coach Tahlma Ahlers.

“It will be exciting, I think it will be really special for her,” Ahlers said. “She’s earned it.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.