Feb. 21, 2020—Hoy! Pinoy! Packed up and headed off to the Steriti Memorial Rink in Boston for their traditional Skate Night. 

Going in two droves of students, e-board member Shanarah Bargan led the pack leaving at 6:30 p.m. After the shuttle bus drive and Red Line ride to Park Street, Bargan’s group all hopped on the Green Line train bound for Lechmere. After getting off at North Station and a misturn, the crowd finally made it to the rink. Skate rentals at Steriti are cash only, so a few students had to Venmo their peers. Many people had to switch out their skates, as there weren’t any half sizes. Bargan helped a few people tie, and re-tie, their laces.

Hoy! Pinoy!, the Filipino-American club at the University of Massachusetts Boston, wasn’t the only club there. A few members from the Anime Club and the Vietnamese Student Association also showed up. Hoy! Pinoy! brought around 13 people while other members were waiting at the rink.

Co-president of Hoy! Pinoy!, John Carlo Laude, was able to talk about the event. “So, we love to do events that are outside of campus. There’s a few events that we go to for inter-collegiate. We like to go to other campuses and see what other events they have. This was actually inspired by another event from that inter-collegiate event. So a bunch of schools from BU, Northeastern, and other schools, they invited people to go ice skating and UMass Boston was in the list of people invited—all the Filipino clubs around Boston and we went to this event and went, ‘Wow, that was really fun,’ so we want to do this for UMass Boston students as well. We just rolled with it from last year and now it’s become a traditional thing that we do.”

All kinds of different music played. From Whitney Houston to Lady Gaga, music played while everyone was skating. Though some people were using boxes to hold on to, not everyone was an amateur—a few people were landing twirls and doing spins. The rink was opened to the public and they had people of all ages on the ice at all times. 

Senior Roshanna Clarke is not a member of the clubs who went with Hoy! Pinoy!, but got the email in her inbox and decided to show up. On what kind of a time she was having, Clarke said, “It’s an interesting experience. I’ve never ice skated before.” She said she’d love to go to more events in the future but is afraid she’ll miss the email.

A UMass Boston freshman, Jess Panaligan is also a member of Hoy! Pinoy!. When asked about events she’s gone to with the club she said, “I’ve gone to this one and I was going to go to one during the Filipino history month but I couldn’t go to that one, unfortunately.” She went on to talk about the skate night, “It was a nice way to get everyone together back after the start of the semester. Like meeting new faces since I haven’t been to one before, and they’re all really nice and welcoming.” Her final thought was, “Just join Hoy! Pinoy!. You don’t have to be like a Filipino to join, there are a lot of people from other ethnicities and stuff so it’s a lot of fun!”