A Sprout in Bean Town

They say that great oaks from tiny acorns grow. In Boston on Saturday, “bean town” sprouted the first shoot of a beanstalk that, given the strength of the Scottish community, should grow into a giant.

Some 15 tartaned and kilted skaters came out the the Rink at 401 on a pleasant Saturday afternoon to enjoy the ice and celebrate their Scottish heritage

Karen Mahoney, whose Campbell parents had come from Scotland in the 1960s, had seized upon the idea of inviting friends and family to kilt skate when she heard about the Tartan Kilt Skate in New York City. That event was being organized for the second straight year by her friend and colleague, Camilla Hellman, of the American-Scottish Foundation. Camilla put Karen in touch with the kiltskate.com website and before she knew it, Karen was connected to a network of kilt skate partners — one day before her event was scheduled to begin.

In the hours before the Boston kilt skate, the event notice received 23 hits. The blog announcing the Boston kilt skate received 43 hits. All in all, a pretty good day’s work for starting from scratch. It’s not known how many of those hits came from the family, friends and Karen’s Highland dance students who had already been informed about the event.

Certainly there’s room to grow. In the month of January, the event page for the Ottawa kilt skate (held on January 18) had 1,070 hits.

Inviting her family and Highland dance students has been a great place to start. “Only 15 skaters this time,” she says, “but next year will be bigger.” Onward and upward!