Cobb >> Much of the Lake County community is working hard to make this Christmas a special one. With toy collections, coat drives and countless opportunities to take pictures with Kris Kringle already on the books, the holiday spirit is in high gear. But CalPine and Beau Moore of Moore Family Winery are just getting started.
Yesterday at noon, Winter Wonderland in Lake County opened at Cobb’s Blackrock Golf Course. The day featured an outdoor ice rink, zip line, free hot chocolate and a coat and pajama giveaway for kids impacted by the Valley Fire. Today, in addition to the ice skating, zip line and warm drinks, Santa will stop by for pictures with children, which will be provided free of charge by Twin Pine Casino, plus a stocking giveaway courtesy of CalPine at the Geysers.
“We tried to get all the local businesses that we could to help out,” Moore explained.
The ice rink will stay up until Jan, 3 and though the zip line will be taken down on Dec. 22, a Winter Wonderland fun zone will go up Dec. 26-28. Santa will make four separate appearances, starting today.
The idea for Winter Wonderland came just before Halloween. With so many homes lost in Cobb, including Moore’s, kids didn’t have the usual places to trick-or-treat. In stepped Moore and his family, along with CalPine. They set up a Halloween celebration at the Blackrock Golf Course, giving the community an opportunity to bring out their families and celebrate the holiday. Before the event even went off, it was apparent they needed to do something similar for Christmas.
Winter Wonderland in Lake County was born. “It was just our part of giving back to the community,” Moore said.
He teamed up with CalPine at the Geysers once again and in just a month and a half they had everything ready to go. They even wrangled a district supervisor into agreeing to dress up as Santa for a day.
Pulling together an entire winter experience in less than two months might sound like an ambitious task, but CalPine and Moore were determined to give the community a holiday treat. Some of their plans didn’t unfold quite how they hoped — they wanted to bring in a snow-making company to construct a small sledding hill, but the company was already booked — but overall, the event came together quickly and without much trouble. The rink was set up two days ago, and within a day people were skating across the frosty surface.
While the event was set up in response to the fire, the festivities are for everyone, free of charge, whether they lost their home or not. There will be a tree giveaway one day just for fire victims, and NorthFace donated 500 beanies, which will be given out at Winter Wonderland.
“It’s so hard to say, ‘only if you lost your house do you get something,’” Moore said. “Even though we lost our house, we have friends who are going through a bunch of garbage. Why don’t their kids get anything?”
The rink is a treat for those who love ice skating, but hate the inconvenience of driving to Santa Rosa for the nearest skating experience. And while Moore’s father skated on Forest Lake when it used to freeze, there’s never been a temporary ice rink in Lake County, at least not in recent memory.
“Everyone’s really excited about it,” Moore said. “There’s just so many things happening.”
If this year goes well, Moore could see the event continuing for many holiday seasons to come. “Who knows what the future might hold?”
This year the skating rink is an artificial one, provided by Santa Barbara-based company All Year Sports Galaxy, with “ice” that doesn’t require a Zamboni. While this means for a slightly slower skating experience, it’s significantly cheaper to rent. But Moore is looking into acquiring a real ice rink for next year, if they decide to do this again. That also means the rink would be in place for months, not weeks.
Though word is still out on the next holiday season, until January 3rd “Winter Wonderland in Lake County” will be open in Cobb, weekdays from 12 p.m. -8 p.m. and on weekends from 12 p.m. -10 p.m. It will be closed Christmas Day and will operate from 12 p.m. -4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
The Blackrock Golf Course is located at 16451 Golf Rd. Visit facebook.com/WinterWonder2015 or call 987-4270 for more information.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
