Creating joy on ice for others

COLD ICE, WARM HEART: Carolyn Drumm, executive director of nonprofit Skate For Joy, helps Andreina Dominguez, left, and Namrita Riat out onto the ice at the Alex and Ani City Center skating rink at Kennedy Plaza in Providence. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
COLD ICE, WARM HEART: Carolyn Drumm, executive director of nonprofit Skate For Joy, helps Andreina Dominguez, left, and Namrita Riat out onto the ice at the Alex and Ani City Center skating rink at Kennedy Plaza in Providence. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

A professional skater, an entrepreneur, a founder and executive director, Carolyn Drumm – with a little inspiration from Oprah Winfrey – is sharing her passion with those less fortunate.

Drumm, of Warwick, started figure skating at the age of 12, when she decided to take what she’d learned from dancing ballet and apply it to the ice. Today, nearly four decades later, she’s founder and executive director of the nonprofit Skate For Joy, which has engaged thousands of at-risk youths through ice skating.

Drumm, who started the organization in 2001, says she wants to provide inner-city children with the same opportunity her mother – a single parent – gave her.

“My mom was a figure skater with the Providence Figure Skating Club, and I always wanted to do it, but it was too expensive. My brother and sister are both older, so when they left home it freed up some money, and I started skating,” Drumm said.

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Drumm quickly excelled and began entering competitions.

After finishing high school, Drumm wasn’t finished skating. She heard about skating opportunity in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so she grabbed her skates, headed south and joined the cast of B-Dazzled, a cabaret-on-ice group that performed for cruise-ship voyagers at the former Palace Hotel.

She spent the next two years performing as a chorus skater and soloist.

In 1985, Drumm moved to Williamsburg, Va., to continue her professional skating career. She performed in the show “America on Ice: A Tribute to Scott Hamilton,” at Busch Gardens.

After her contract with America on Ice ended in 1985, Drumm moved back to her hometown of Warwick and hung up the skates for a while. Her brother introduced her to his golfing buddy, James “Jimmy” Drumm, who later became her husband.

Jimmy had just started a concrete and masonry business called J.D. Cement Work Inc. and she helped him get it off the ground.

It was during that time when Drumm came up with the idea of Skate For Joy. She was home one day taking care of her children and watching TV when the idea came to her in a moment of clarity.

Drumm took a check from J.D. Cement Work and started a skating program with eight children from the Urban League of Rhode Island. The idea quickly grew and today she runs the after-school program for 51 children, ages 5-16 years old.

Each Monday, from November to March, at-risk school-aged children come down to the Alex and Ani City Center skating rink at Kennedy Plaza in Providence, to take lessons in either figure skating or hockey.

Drumm says the organization aims to provide the opportunity to those who might not be able to afford it otherwise.

“Skating has given me so much, and it really is a great confidence builder,” Drumm said. •

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