We are readily anticipating the summer season at Roller Kingdom. We’ve been counting down the days until school is out and are ready to skate every chance we get. You may find that you are in the same situation, but have outgrown your skates. Even if your skates still fit, it may be time for a new pair depending on why you skate. At Roller Kingdom in Hudson and Tyngsboro, we have active Artistic skating teams, and Speed Skating. We’ve also had quite a few skaters break it down with their jam skating moves!

When purchasing skates, it is important to keep in mind what the skates will be used for. Certainly an artistic skater will not need the same type of skates that a speed skater will need. These choices are much more complicated than just choosing quads or inlines.

We recognize that for skaters, buying the right pair of skates is essential. For this reason, we are able to answer any questions that you may have in the process of purchasing skates. We keep a variety of sizes and styles in stock at the Skate Shops in both of our locations, so you can easily try skates on and take a spin around the rink before committing to buying them. If we do not have what you are looking for, we can order nearly anything from our suppliers.

As you prepare for our summer season, don’t forget about our Skate Rebate. We are offering skating passes equivalent to the dollar amount you spend on skates. This is a great way to kick off your summer with brand new skates and free skating at Roller Kingdom!

You may not think too much about those roller skates and how they came to be when you put them on your feet at Roller Kingdom. While you may enjoy rolling, turning, and gliding across the skate floor, skating was not always as simple as it now is in our Tyngsboro and Hudson rinks.

Taking a look at the history of skating, it is evident that the first pair of skates recorded as an invention took their place in the history books in 1760. These skates, developed by inventor John Joseph Merlin, were made with small metal wheels and had their wheels in one line similar to modern day inline skates. It was not until nearly sixty years later in 1819 when the first patent for roller skates was recorded. These skates again were similar to modern day inline skates, but were still quite basic. Simple maneuverability was quite difficult.

A large improvement was made in control and maneuverability in skate design in 1863. A furniture store owner named James Leonard Plimpton designed quad skates with two pairs of wheels. This allowed skaters to turn more easily and led to the first public skating rinks in the United States in 1866.

As skating design continued to change and safety measures such as the toe stop, added in 1876, skating started to take off. Roller skating was largely popular in the United States between 1935 and the early 1960’s. Another spike in skating interest took place in the 1970’s with further wheel improvements and disco music.

What about now?

Fast forward to current day and roller skating is still alive and well. In addition to skating for fitness and fun, at Roller Kingdom speed skating and artistic skating are still a part of what happens each week. Looking back at the history of skating and the change in skates over the years, it leaves the question that is ultimately a personal choice now. What is better, quads or inlines?

Feel free to weigh in on your opinion regarding quads or inlines on our social media channels. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google + to keep up with modern day skating events at Roller Kingdom.

Image via wikipedia

If your little one is walking, active, and energetic, then it may be time to get them skating. At the Hudson, MA Roller Kingdom we offer skating lessons specifically for the little ones during our Tiny Tot Roller Skating sessions.

When is Tiny Tot Roller Skating?

Tiny Tot Roller Skating takes place every Thursday from 9:00 am – 10:30 am. Registration is from 9:00-9:30, skating lesson from 9:30-10:00 am, and skating practice is from 10:00-10:30 am (if there is a private rink rental, there will be no practice at 10:00 am). Cost for the weekly lesson is just $5 and parents are free.

Where is Tiny Tot Roller Skating?

You can join us for Tiny Tot Roller Skating at our Hudson roller skating rink.

How much does it cost to participate?

Tiny Tot Roller Skating is just $5. This includes quad skate rental, and did we mention that parents are free?!

Our Thursday Tiny Tot Roller Skating offers a great opportunity for you and your little one to get out and enjoy some exercise together. Your little one will feel so proud and accomplished when they show off their newly acquired skills on wheels. Whether you are a work at home parent, stay at home parent, grandparent, nanny, or sitter, you are welcome to bring your bubbly charge with you to Tiny Tot Roller Skating. Skate rental is included, but we carry training skates in our pro shop as well. If you have any further questions regarding our Tiny Tot Skating, please contact Heidi or Bob at 978-567-5926.

Guest post by Heidi P.

When you think of Memorial Day weekend, do you think parades, barbecues, and artistic roller skating competition? That’s right, artistic roller skating competition.

At Roller Kingdom’s Hudson location, we have been hosting this annual event for over the past 10 years.  Skaters from all over New England (including New York) attend this competition.

Starting around 7:00am Saturday May 24th, the skaters will take the floor looking for the chance to impress the judges with their skills and go home with a medal. The competition will run from early morning Saturday morning thru late afternoon Sunday.

Beginners thru national champions will be attending this meet. Skaters ages range from as young as 4 to as old as 81. If you are interested in coming to watch this event, please contact Heidi at 978-567-5926 after May 20th. She will have the final schedule of events.

Have you heard the term, “work-life balance” lately? If not, then look around! Time.com posted an article in April of 2014 titled, How to Achieve Work-Life Balance in 5 Steps. This article written by Eric Barker pointed out that in a ten year span from 1986-1996 the term “work-life balance” was found in the media 32 times, yet in 2007 it was mentioned over 1,600 times. Clearly, finding this balance between work and life is a concern for many

We have got the solution for you at Roller Kingdom in Massachusetts. Why not take those employees out of the office for a day and celebrate the successes that you’ve had working so hard. After all, you’ve heard the phrase, “Work hard, play hard!” You can certainly play hard at Roller Kingdom with skating, laser tag, karaoke, and arcade games.

With our large screen and sound systems, you can even manage to fit in a quick off-site company meeting if desired. You are welcome to book a private party for your department, or book the rink and bring out the whole company along with family members of employees. We’ve got over 25,000 of square feet for your department or company outing to play in and help find that work-life balance.

We will work with you to customize a package that meets your group needs. We can customize what group activities you would like included, and we can customize a menu plan that works for you. Whether you would like to use our open snack bar and enjoy our tasty treats of pizza, hot dogs, fried dough, nachos, and Pepsi products, or have a catered event, we can make sure your event menu meets your needs.

Contact us today to make your reservation and book your event now!

Come one, come all, come on out to Roller Kingdom and have a ball. Whether your church group consists of crazy and zany youth group, or your women’s group is looking to get out and have a good time, we know that Roller Kingdom is the place to be.

Your church group of ten or more can get a $1 discount of admission to any of our regular public skate sessions. Call ahead and depending on our availability we may be able to get you and your crew a reserved table.

If munchies will make your church group outing complete, then look no further! Our snack bar is stocked with Icees, nachos, pizza, fried dough, pretzels and more. We will gladly work with your church group in customizing a food package to meet your group’s needs whether large or small.

We also customize activity packages for church groups and a variety of other groups including teams, schools, scouts, and other organizations. There is plenty to keep your group occupied and active with roller skating, lasertag, and an arcade that puts the competition to shame. Contact Roller Kingdom in Tyngsboro or Hudson to plan your church group’s outing with a discounted rate or private party.

Roller Kingdom is a great place to visit for a date night! We have plenty of possibilities for a date night or an excuse to skate!

1. Roller Skating Date-You may not know the love of your life as well as you think you do. It may be time to find out how well they can balance in life, that is on eight wheels of course! Dinner and a movie gets boring after awhile, so we suggest that you change it up and add a little variety to your next date night. Come on in to Roller Kingdom for your skating date night! After all, this is a great place to make an excuse to hold hands with the one you love or are interested in!

2. Mom and Dad Night Out-No one ever said that dating has to stop after your married. Mom and dad, take advantage of our rink availability and enjoy a night out! You can skate the rink together and take a trip down memory lane while the kids take their best shots in laser tag or spend a little time with arcade games. We’re open from 7 pm – 11 pm in Tyngsboro and from 7 pm – 10 pm in Hudson.

3. Family Date Night-Family skate nights are just plain fun! If your family is looking for a fun filled family date night, then look no further. This will encourage excercise, family fun, and strengthen skills and interests in skating. Why not pass along the love you have for skating. Plan your next family date night at Roller Kingdom!

4. Sibling Date-If you grew up skating at the rink every Friday and Saturday with your siblings, then relive your childhood at Roller Kingdom with a sibling date! Skating offers a great chance to spend time toegether and catch up on what’s going on with friends and family!

We’d love to hear your ideas for a date night at Roller Kingdom. Make sure you share them in the comments below. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Google +, and Twitter!

Image from cooltext.com

Today’s economy often means that schools and organizations are left with less dollars in their budget. That is why Roller Kingdom in Tyngsboro and Hudson is happy to help your school, school group, non-profit organization, church group, or other community cause as a partner in fundraising. We have a great venue for you to hold your fundraising event in Hudson or Tyngsboro. We highlighted the importance of planning, event type, and location in our Tips for Successful Fundraising earlier in April. After looking closer at what has brought success to our fundraising partners, we wanted to share a few more key areas to focus in on as you and your group plan your attack for making fundraising as successful as possible.

Event Sponsors

With six months of advance notice, as suggested in our previous tips, you and your group will want to allow for plenty of time to get sponsors on board with your project and support your fundraising initiatives. Sponsors are helpful in cutting or covering any costs that may be involved up front. They are also great in providing funds to reach your ultimate goal. Think about what sponsors may be able to help your group and also benefit from the public acknowledgement of helping your group’s cause.

Freebies

It is true, people love free stuff. Any giveaways that you can offer to attendees can be a bonus. Perhaps this can be covered as a sponsor endorsement or as part of the price of admission to your event. Whether prizes, t-shirts, or skating event accessories, freebie giveaways may make your event that much more exciting. Glow sticks are always a fun giveaway with roller skating and something that’s easy to get a sponsor on board in helping to provide.

Food

Not only to people love freebie giveaways, but they also love food. Roller Kingdom has plenty of great choices available from our snack bar. Your attendees can cool down from the laps they’ve skated with a refreshing soda or blue rasberry or cherry Icee, and our pizza, hot dogs, and nachos always make for tasty treats. Contact us to help you consider food options for your fundraising event.

People

The most important element of your fundraiser is the people that will be involved. Not only do you need participants, but you will need plenty of volunteers to help you pull of your event and make it a success. Will you have someone greeting guests at the door and directing them? What about selling tickets in advance? Who will be in charge of collecting prizes or supplies? Volunteers are essential in helping to lighten the load required in organizing a successful event.

Contact Roller Kingdom in Tyngsboro or Hudson for your next fundraising event. We’d love to help make your event a success and see your participants smiling and having fun while raising much needed funds for your organization or group.

Hey Roller Kingdom skaters, we need your help! Both of our Roller Kingdom locations have mascots. Our Tyngsboro skating rink has a pink bear, and our Hudson skating rink has a panda bear. Like all mascots, our bears have become a part of the family at Roller Kingdom. They have been spotted skating at birthday parties, photo bombing, and participating in all things Roller Kingdom.

There are famous mascots associated with theme parks, cereals, cookies, and restaurants. They all have something in common that our bears do not have. They all have names. Yes, you read that right, our Roller Kingdom bears are currently nameless.

We are asking our skaters, lasertaggers, karaoke singers, and arcade game players to help us come up with creative and fun names for our Roller Kingdom bears during our April Vacation Skates. We will reward the person that names our panda and the person that names our pink bear with two free skating passes to Roller Kingdom!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Come on out to our Spring Break Skate.

2. Post your suggestion for each of our bear’s names to @Roller_Kingdom on Twitter. Make sure that you hashtag #nameourpanda for our Hudson panda bear. If you’re entering by naming our pink bear at the Tyngsboro Roller Kingdom, make sure you hashtag #nameourpinkbear.

3. All entries for the Hudson panda bear must be received by 4:30 pm on Friday, April 25, 2014. All entries for the Tyngsboro pink bear must be received by 4:30 pm on Friday, May 2, 2014.

What are you waiting for? Mark your calendar for next week’s April Vacation Skate so that you can come on out and see our bears! Our Hudson April Vacation Skate is Monday – Friday (April 21-25) from 1 pm – 4 pm, and our Tyngsboro April Vacation Skate is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for two weeks (April 21, 23, 25, 28, 30, and May 2) from 1 pm – 4 pm. Don’t forget we’ve got face painting at both locatons on Friday, April 25!

We can’t wait to announce our winners! Make sure you follow along on Google +, Twitter, and Facebook to see all of the great names that our skaters come up with!

Roller Kingdom birthday parties are always special occasions, but now they are even better because we’ve got an added element of fun! Hudson birthday parties now include a visit to our brand new Prize Cube in addition to roller skating. When the birthday child, teen, or adult enters the Prize Cube, they will have 15 seconds to gather as many prize tickets as possible in a whirlwind of fun.

Prize tickets will be swirling and whirling around the Prize Cube for our birthday guest of honor to catch. You may think you’ve seen similar cubes elsewhere, but the Prize Cube at Roller Kingdom is one of a kind. In fifteen seconds a birthday boy or birthday girl will manage to catch as many prize tickets as they can. Some may think that fifteen seconds seems like an eternity with time standing still as prize tickets fly around in every which way. Whatever prize tickets are snatched from the air in the Prize Cube could equal some pretty awesome stuff.

Are you wondering what this awesome stuff includes that our birthday honorees could have snagged? The awesome stuff up for grabs, with the capture of the right tickets, includes tasty treats from our snack bar, free skating passes, and a pair of brand new roller skates!

We suggest that you don’t delay! There is no age limit in place, and you know that all guests will have a great time spinning their wheels out on our rink! Call us at 978-562-3439 or click here to schedule your next birthday party at Roller Kingdom in Hudson.