Watch: Skating party celebrates new East Anchorage park

Ice skaters filled the new skating ribbon at Chanshtnu Muldoon Park on Monday afternoon, celebration the near-completion of the park's first phase of construction. It's a park decades in the making, said former Northeast Community Council Member Ainslie Phillips.

"It was my dream back in 1997," Phillips said Monday after she slide around the oval as Don Wood pushed her walker. She said she remembers when the land, just southeast of the intersection of Debarr Road and Muldoon Road, attracted trash and crime. She envisioned a place where kids could connect to being outside.

"This just warms my heart to see my dream come true on Martin Luther King Day," she said.

On Monday, dozens of ice skaters joined many UAA hockey players for a soft opening event. In a brief game Monday, the Seawolves divided into teams and tried to score at either end of the unique surface, which is C-shaped with loops at both ends. Afterward, the public joined them on the ice.

Watch the Seawolves in action and hear about what's coming to Chanshtnu Muldoon Park from planner Kristi Wood in this video.