A Kalamazoo Tradition

I have to admit that I don't partake in ice cream all that often in the winter, but it's something that I only enjoy occasionally in the summer. It's not that I don't like ice cream, but finding a flavour that one likes or wants to indulge in every once in a while might be the hardest thing about ice cream. The probably means that there are some good flavours out there that I'm missing like "Unicorn Toots" or "Moon Mist", but ice cream comes in all sorts of flavours and colours. Food dyes play an important role in giving flavours of ice cream their eye-catching colours, and this is why I'm writing this article today because the ECHL's Kalamazoo Wings are going to continue a tradition where they seem to have cornered the market when it comes to their sheet of ice at the Wings Event Center. Who's up for some odd-coloured ice?

For those that aren't aware, the white ice that we see in rinks is artificially-coloured. According to howstuffworks, the ice you see in rinks is coloured with white paint that "comes in 40-pound bags of powder that have to be mixed with water". The Wings figured out long ago that the ice can be painted with alternate colours to represent specific days and events as they were the first team to have green ice on for St. Patrick's Day on March 17, 1982! What they didn't know, as written by John Peterson for the Wings, was that the green food colouring they chose to use to dye the ice green has "a chemical in it that prevents freezing. The ice that night featured puddles of standing water and made it a sloppy game. The cardboard shamrocks underneath the ice developed air pockets and cracked. When players were knocked down, they’d get up with green dye all over their jerseys."

The Wings have since perfected their technique so that players aren't falling down and getting up in a different colour, but they're going to throw a new shade of paint on the ice this weekend as the Wings will paint the ice lavender in support of the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer initiative. The team will skate on the lavender ice against the Fort Wayne Komets, and they'll be holding their Specialty Jersey Auction with proceeds benefiting the West Michigan Cancer Center!

Obviously, it's admirable that the Wings are doing this to help cancer research, but we're here to talk ice of different colours, right? Again, Kalamazoo, Michigan is the right place to be because Toni Will, Wings' general manager and Governor, spoke to AccuWeather's Senior On-Air Meteorologist Adam Del Rosso in 2021 about the history and process that goes into painting all their ice all the colours of a rainbow!

Pretty cool, right? The Wings might hold the answers for other teams who want to start colouring their ice surfaces after all the colours they've painted their rink, and they'll add lavender this Friday when they help support the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer initiative.

The Kalamazoo Wings aren't known for wild colours on their jerseys, but they've skated on ice that's been painted green, pink, yellow, and, on one weekend, all the colours of the rainbow. Frankly, more teams should be willing to have a little fun with their ice surfaces!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!