Snoopy’s Home Ice, storied Santa Rosa rink, reopens to the public

Santa Rosa’s year-round, Charlie Brown-steeped slice of winter wonder is back, and the city’s future hockey stars and figure skaters were on hand to welcome it after a long wait for parents and children alike.

Just after 11 a.m., around a dozen tiny skaters tottered, slid, tumbled and tip-toed onto the rink at Snoopy’s Home Ice. The Toddlers on Ice program, designed to introduce children to the joys of skating, marked the return of Redwood Empire Ice Arena, the storied skating facility now open to the public for the first time since the pandemic began.

For parents who have spent much of a year worrying about halted development or limited social interactions, the chance to witness an icy childhood discovery couldn’t come soon enough.

“It’s awesome,” Kim Wright said from the rink side as she watched her 2-year-old daughter Ava’s skating debut. “She’s been pretty cooped up.”

Ava has been talking about ice skating since seeing it on television, Wright said. Fortunately for her, and thanks to the famed cartoonist Charles Schulz’s Minnesota roots and fondness for ice hockey, Santa Rosa can deliver. And what better place to try on her first pair of skates than a community-centered rink where her parents once went on dates?

Schulz, missing hockey and home ice after his move to California in 1958, commissioned the rink, complete with the house and storefronts of a faux Swiss Alps village, in the budding Coddingtown area more than a half century ago. It opened to the public in 1969.

The Schulz family remain owners. The arena closed in May 2019 for a six-month renovation that saw the pipes and cement under the ice replaced for the first time. The arena reopened in November 2019.

Then, in March, it was shuttered again, this time involuntarily and indefinitely, as businesses across the county, state and nation were told to close their doors to curb the spread of a deadly virus.

Categorized as a family entertainment center, Snoopy’s Home Ice was among the last on the tiered framework of businesses allowed to reopen. To keep some revenue flowing, and keep the community active, Snoopy’s Home Ice offered space for youth camps and fitness classes as allowed under shifting public health orders, general manager Tamara Stanley said.

Stanley took over managing the rink last summer, when even classes and youth camps weren’t running. “I started out running an ice arena with no ice,” she said.

The go-ahead for the arena came only on June 15, when California dropped its colored tiers for reopening and lifted most social distancing and mask mandates.

Suddenly, Snoopy’s Home Ice was rushing to welcome back Santa Rosa’s skating public. “It was very important to the board and the (Schulz) family to get our skaters back on the ice as quickly as possible,” Stanley said.

Snoopy’s opened its first public skate session of the new era at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Within half an hour, skaters of all ages had begun to circle the rink while a line of patrons waited to get in the door.

Snoopy’s is allowing adults who are fully vaccinated to go without face masks, except when participating in youth programming, given that children younger than 12 have not yet been vaccinated.

For now, the rink is holding public skate sessions from 12:30-2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. It costs $7 to hit the ice, plus the price of skate rentals if needed. The Warm Puppy Cafe remains closed.

The arena seeks to open more programs, more skating hours and the cafe as soon as staffing can be increased. The Growlers, Santa Rosa’s semi-professional Senior A hockey team, hopes to begin scheduling games by late October or early November, team co-owner Blake Johnson said.

As figure skating classes resume, the arena will feature a new, decorated, homegrown athlete as skating director. Kim Navarro started skating at Snoopy’s Home Ice at the age of 2, she told The Press Democrat.

Navarro began performing on the ice as Woodstock, Snoopy’s avian pal, in Christmas shows at the arena. The El Molino High School graduate went on to an international skating career that included three stints as an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Team, two bronze medals in U.S. Championships and twice making the U.S. World Championship Team.

After decades of a life she described as being a “skating gypsy,” Navarro has moved home to Sonoma County with her husband and family.

On Wednesday, she was thrilled to welcome children back onto the ice, cajoling them into dancing, center rink, to the song “Hokey Pokey” by The Learning Station.

“It’s nice to see toddlers,” she said. “It’s nice to see parents. I feel for them so much.”

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88.