STARSkate Athlete Award winner
Winchester Skating Club’s Joelle Menard received the 2016-17 Skate Canada Section STARSkate Athlete Award at the Annual Achievement Awards Luncheon in Kingston on Sun., May 7. From left, Team Leader Skate Canada – Eastern Ontario Section Kim Calder, Ménard, and Coach Leanne van der Zweep pose for the photo.      Courtesy photo

Jeff Moore
Record Staff
KINGSTON — Winchester Skating Club’s Joelle Menard was named recipient of the 2016-17 Skate Canada Section STARSkate Athlete Award. Menard received her award Sun., May 7, at the Annual Achievement Awards Luncheon in Kingston. Menard was nominated for the award by her coach Leanne van der Zweep.

The winner of this award reflects the essence of the STARSkate program including participation, achievement, personal success, displays spirit and passion for the sport, strives for new goals, achieves balance within skating and other areas of life, gives back to the sport by assisting at club level; an athlete who has passed at least one complete test certificate in at least three disciplines within the Skate Canada STARSkate program.

Menard competed in five competitions this season including the Provincial Championships in Port Colbourne, finishing 16th in the Province of Ontario. She also completed three Gold level disciplines to conclude the four total a skater can achieve, Skills (2015), FreeSkate, Dance and Interpretive.

Menard is the first skater at the Winchester Skating Club’s history to achieve all four Gold disciplines.  This is her third award at the Skate Canada section level. In 2007, she won the CanSkater of the Year and 2015 she won Coaches Inspiration Award.