For Joan Wilkes, Memorial Gardens (now Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens) was her home away from home. Now the building will host a permanent tribute to the skating legend who died at age 94 in 2024.

Part of the building was dedicated to Wilkes at a Saturday morning celebration and dedication.

When the Gardens opened in 1955, Wilkes had already been a figure skating coach for several years after retiring from competitive skating in 1948. She coached hundreds of skaters into the early 2020s, and donned her skates for the last time when she was 90.

Her daughter, Jodi Lakin, wanted something erected at the Gardens after a city official told her that naming an ice pad after her at the new twin pad arena and community centre (being built on Lakeshore Drive) was not in the cards.

“We had been

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