OGUNQUIT — Lifelong residents Percy Stevens and Cory Staples grew up skating on an ice rink once located at the lower lot parking area off of Beach Street near River Road in Ogunquit.

Now, some 35 years later, the two friends have made it their mission to bring that experience back for a new generation of Ogunquit children.

“There isn’t a great deal for kids to do here in the winter,” said Stevens, a grandfather of two. “Cory and I grew up playing on this rink, staying out of our parents’ hair and generally raising hell.”

Stevens is a custom-home builder and Staples is a retired entrepreneur and former owner of the Riverside Motel. This past November, the pair volunteered their services to the community to create their version of a winter wonderland for local children.

They built a new, temporary, 36-by-96-foot rink on the asphalt at the lower lot, close to where their childhood rink once resided.

“It’s a fair size. Not as fancy as Kennebunk’s (rink), but they had an endowment,” Stevens said.

Stevens asked his friends and contacts at Eldridge Hardware to donate the lumber and rink liner, and Staples donated time.

“The Fire Department has been helpful in the maintenance, and public works donated benches. It’s a true community affair,” said Stevens.

The pair built the rink just after the Thanksgiving snow storm. Then they waited for the weather to turn cold enough to make ice. They waited a long time.

“Unfortunately the weather hasn’t cooperated so much… yet,” said Staples on a sunny weekday morning in January. The temperatures had finally dipped below zero, and after a month of eager anticipation, his grandchildren gained access to the rink on Jan. 10.

While patiently waiting for Old Man Winter to show up, Staples and Stevens made plans to turn the steep hill leading from the upper lot on Route 1 to the lower lot off of River Road into an ice slide.

“We enjoyed the rink when we were kids and figured, hey, somebody’s gotta do it. We’re getting a lot older as a community and it’s important that those of us that can, do something for the families here in town,” Stevens said.

— Tracey Collins can be reached at [email protected].