A small community in southwest Saskatchewan is happy to have something "shiny" in their local rink.

The town of Rockglen, located along Highway 2 south of Assiniboia and a population of 400 in 2011, recently held an Atom level hockey tournament on December 19th with players from across the area coming to play Canada's oldest pastime.

For as long as locals can remember, a 1958/1959 Massey Tractor has been used (or something similar) to flood and clean the ice surface at the Rockglen Community Rink. With the machine approaching six decades of usefulness, there were strong concerns the emissions from the tractor may have been harmful to players and spectators, therefore requiring the arena to be shut down entirely and the tractor retired.

"We were in the process of installing better ventilation to eliminate the problem, and then we had this tournament on short notice. There was some reports that kids weren't feeling well that day with the tournament, so the rink was closed because we didn't want to take any additional risk that someone was going to get sick from the tractor", says Sarah Kirby, secretary for the local Community Rink. "That was on the 19th so we found out on the following Monday our president was contacted and we closed the rink."

With the rink being a staple and hub of the community, there was no question that plans needed to be made to reopen the arena. Rink officials along with the figure skating club and minor hockey club came together to do whatever it took to reopen the facility.

"We did the loan for the whole amount but we had a few groups go in with us and put up security for it, so whoever had $5,000 to set aside we used that as security until we could have a big fundraiser to pay it off or for the time being until we could make arrangements. Obviously we couldn't raise $26,000 in two weeks so this was our temporary solution until we could have a fundraiser", Kirby tells SwiftCurrentOnline.

By January 7th, the town had their 'Olympia Ice Resurfacer' delivered. Soon after, the rink was opened and Kirby says within just a few days it has made a major impact.

"A huge difference. It is much faster, our guy rips around there much faster and it's way easier to operate so we're pretty excited to have something shiny in our rink. It is not brand new but it's much more efficient than what we had before."

The community of Rockglen will be holding an auction fundraiser on March 12th to help pay for the new machine. Kirby says a recent auction in the community helped a young man with leukemia.

"We recently had an auction for someone with leukemia, a young man in the area and we had an auction for him that and raised funds to help him while he couldn't work. Last year there was an auction close to where I live for someone where his house burned down and we were able to raise a lot of money. It's one of those things where a community pulls together for the people in the community and its really nice to see."

Those interested in assisting in the fundraiser can mail a cheque made payable to "Rockglen Community Rink" to Box 328 Rockglen SK S0H 3R0.