Walnut Creek Ice Rink Opens

The Walnut Creek ice rink opened quietly at Civic Park on Friday afternoon, but that was part of the plan.

Emery Lykins, the manager of the Walnut Creek on Ice program, said his company, Specialice, likes to have a light crowd on the first day to make sure everything is working properly.

On Saturday, the rink's annual Children's Winter Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The rink will be open every day now until Jan. 12.

Lykins said about 30 people had shown up by 3 p.m. Friday, although a crowd of after-school kids started trickling in shortly after that.

Lykins said the only new feature at the rink this year is a snow-making machine. Otherwise, 42,000 people came to the rink last season, so he doesn't see a lot of reason to change things.

"We don't do a lot of tweaking here," he said.

This year, Contra Costa Oncology has teamed up with the rink to raise money and awareness for the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.

For every ticket sold, Contra Costa Oncology will make a donation to the food bank.