![]() “It makes you smile because they show us so much potential for our future,” she added. “I get to see a window into what the future can be for these kids, and they’re good kids.” You feel like you’re 16 again because they don’t look at you like you’re 50,” Stephanie said. “The energy that’s there on a Friday night when the lights are going and you’ve got 80 to a 100 kids on skates going around and you’ve got another 20 up talking to you and getting candy. They get to be part of the teenagers’ lives and it’s beautiful. “Because the skating rink is where they fit in.” “You know that these kids have nowhere else to go,” Stephanie said. With the limited number of places for teens to go in Dubois County, The Skate Palace becomes a place of refuge for teens that don’t do movies or cruising around on Friday nights. “You have kids who might be coming in and they’ve kind of had a bad day or whatever and they put on those skates,” Stephanie explained, “and they start skating around to the music and hearing everything that’s going on…” There’s an energy in kids and teens that comes alive in the skating rink. It is about providing a space for young people to hang out in and have a fantastic time. It is truly a labor of love for the couple. “We joke that Indiana law says if you do something for seven years and you don’t make any money at it, it’s a hobby,” she laughed. In fact, the skating rink doesn’t really make them any money. The Jasper Skate Palace has never been lucrative enough to support Stephanie and Brian so they both have full-time jobs. ![]() “We took a leap of faith and ended up running both rinks (Vincennes and Jasper) for two years,” Stephanie said.Įventually, the two locations became too much to handle and the couple pulled up stakes and planted themselves in Jasper. They asked if the Rawlinses were interested in purchasing the rink that had been open in Jasper since 1978. They met up with the owners who said they were ready to get out of the business. “We had two kids by then and when you are a rink owner, you go skating with your kids everywhere,” she said. Then around 2003, the couple visited The Jasper Skate Palace. In 1995, they became a newlywed couple and partners in The Vincennes Rollerdome. “This was truly his baby, truly his dream,” she said. According to Stephanie, she knew that Brian, an accountant by trade, had always wanted to own an entertainment facility of some sort. When they arrived, the manager asked if they would like to buy the rink. Then, on the way back home, the newly engaged couple got a call from the manager at the Rollerdome to see if they could stop back by. They talked with the manager a bit before continuing down to Evansville where Brian completed his special mission with a marriage proposal. “We stopped to go skating and happened to run into the manager,” Stephanie said. The two hit it off and began dating.Įventually, Brian planned a special trip to Evansville over a Valentine’s Day weekend that included a stop at the Vincennes Rollerdome on the way down. Stephanie’s brother got her a job there as a hostess for parties and events. The couple met while working at United Skates of America in Indianapolis. The owners of The Jasper Skate Palace ended up here through a series of connected encounters in roller skating rinks across the state. Roller skating brought Stephanie and Brian Rawlins to Jasper. The Rawlinses refinished the original maple floor at the Jasper Skate Palace early in the closure expecting to be reopened in weeks rather than months.
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