Two Montco girls lead the charge on renovating New Hanover Community Park's hockey rink
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Two 11-year-old girls presented their improvement plan to several New Hanover Township officials Wednesday afternoon.
It's an effort that has been months in the making, starting in October, when the girls heard their hockey rink could be turned into a pickleball court. It quickly became clear they were not going to let that happen.
"This hockey rink, I made multiple friends here," Lilly Walter said. "She's one of them. And I just have great memories here."
Lilly and her friend Natalie Van Druff spent countless hours at New Hanover Community Park playing pick-up hockey on the hockey dek.
"I have memories here of just like rollerblading here, running around on this hockey dek," Druff said. "It kinda just means a lot more to me than just hockey.
It's their happy place. And even though the rink is well-worn, the girls take pride in preserving it.
"Another thing we do is we stay after the pickup games, and we make sure no one left any trash, and if they did, we make sure we throw it out," Walter said.
So, in the fall when they heard the township was considering a plan to replace hockey with a pickleball court, the girls rallied community support to stop the idea in its tracks.
But, the recreation committee also asked them to be part of the solution to improve the rink.
"The surface that we run on, it's filled with cracks, and so we're thinking of repaving that," Walter said.
Natalie and Lilly also want to improve the rink's boards and doors and are now bringing those ideas to township leaders.
"I'm excited to tell them what needs to be fixed so it's safer for everyone," Walter said. "That's a big responsibility, and we want to try to make it the best we can. I think it feels really good to be asked to make it better."
"It taught me I have a stronger voice than I expected I had to keep something that's very important to me," Druff said. "And made me believe in myself a lot more and believe I can be a change maker in the world that I live in."
The girls had their meeting with the township manager and two board members Wednesday afternoon. If they get the green light, they could then present their ideas in front of the full board of supervisors.
They're also looking for sponsors to help get the improvements done and clearly, they're fans of the Flyers.
