Figure skaters from around Maine performed in an exhibition on March 9, organized by two coaches from Harpswell, to honor the victims of American Airlines Flight 5342 and raise money for their families.
The Skating Exhibition for a Cause, put on by the Skating Club of Brunswick at Bowdoin College’s Sidney J. Watson Arena, brought in about $6,000. The money will go to families of 28 members of the figure skating community lost in the Jan. 29 plane crash.
The athletes, coaches and family members were returning from a training camp in Kansas when the plane collided with a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. All 67 people on the plane and helicopter died in the crash.
Among the victims were Russian skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, 1994 world champions in pairs skating and former Olympians. Two of their students, both of whom started their figure skating careers at the Brunswick club, performed at Watson Arena.
Brunswick native Caroline Santaguida studied with Shishkova and Naumov for 10 years. Her emotional performance to Adele’s “When We Were Young” was a highlight of the evening.
“Every second on the ice holds thoughts of you,” she said in a social media post after the show.
Franz-Peter Jerosch, of Yarmouth, trained with Shishkova and Naumov for almost a year in 2020. The lessons they taught him inform his approach to coaching the next generation of skaters.
“The way that they talked to their skaters — they treated us so, so well. You trusted them,” he said.
He welcomed the opportunity to perform in their honor.
“This is what I could give. This is what I could do,” he said. “I could skate for them.”
The idea for the exhibition and fundraiser was conceived by Harpswell residents Jean Calderwood and Linda Despres almost immediately after they heard about the crash. Calderwood and Despres are members and coaches with the Skating Club of Brunswick.
Their initial idea was to request donations during the club’s regular free skate and perhaps observe a moment of silence. But “it just kept snowballing,” Despres said.
The timeline was challenging. Bowdoin’s ice rink was scheduled to close for the season in early March, giving Calderwood and Despres just over a month to pull everything together.
They lined up sponsors and volunteers, reached out to other clubs, designed a program, and gathered a slate of talented skaters to perform. They even secured “American Idol” contestant Julia Gagnon to sing the national anthem.
The program also included young skaters, the ones just starting to find their balance.
Leona and Liberty Moore, of Orr’s Island, started lessons in January. Their mother, Melody Moore, wanted them to learn to skate, but “ponds haven’t been freezing much the past couple of years,” so she enrolled them in the Brunswick club.
“I thought maybe dressing up in the costume and seeing the other people would make her want to figure skate, but she still would prefer to play hockey,” Melody said of 5-year-old Leona.
Three-year-old Liberty, on the other hand, “really loves seeing the older skaters … watching all the jumps and the spins and the fancy outfits. Liberty needs everything to be beautiful,” Melody said.
Melody said the tragedy that prompted the benefit “doesn’t really hit home for them at this age.” Liberty was excited about the benefit, the sparkly dress, the shiny tights. Leona was too. She picked a pink outfit and wore it around the house every day before the exhibition.
“They would practice skating around in the kitchen with their socks on the wood floor,” Melody said.
As the arena’s lights were dimmed for the finale, Leona was among the skaters gliding slowly forward, each carrying a candle, as Gagnon sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Liberty carefully shuffled her small skates across the vast expanse of white, trying her best to keep her balance. She wasn’t sure what to do when she fell — it had been only two weeks since she first stood up on the ice on her own.
Coach Wendy Flaschner skated out to her and Liberty took her hand, then found her footing.
The figure skating community that had gathered to honor those who died applauded as Liberty left the ice.
Jerosch said the club “is a very close-knit family.” The skaters form strong bonds in the time they spend together, traveling to far-flung competitions and camps.
“What does make us all so close?” Calderwood pondered after the show. “Because the old story: When you fall, you have to get up. And there’s always somebody there to help you up.”
Proceeds from the event will be donated to the U.S. Figure Skating Family Support Fund.
