MANTON â If you build it, they will come.
Scott Chittle laughed as he quoted the 1989 American baseball film, Field of Dreams, days after he opened his homemade skating rink for public use.
On Saturday, Chittle invited the community to use the rink from 4 to 8 p.m. free of charge, and he said the turnout was unbelievable. There were 40 kids here on Saturday, Chittle said. We had 34 skaters in the rink at one time. It was almost too much. I didn t know what to expect. It looks like it s going to be a raving success for the next couple of years.
MANTON â The final straw for Scott Chittle was when basketball was canceled this season because of COVID-19.
Chittle, who coaches basketball, baseball and football in a travel league for elementary-age kids in the Cadillac area, has strong feelings about the importance of staying physically active and tries his best to impress those values upon his two children, 11-year-old Lillian and 12-year-old Cooper. I m not one of those video game parents, Chittle said. When I learned that basketball wasn t going to happen, I thought, the heck with it, I m going to do this.
Earlier this month, Chittle began building a skating rink in the yard of his Manton home at 208 North Division St. His goal was to create a rink not only for his children, but also for anyone else in the community to use, at no cost.