12 / matters magazine / winter 2019 I magine walking out your back door and straight onto an ice skating rink. Sure, you could do that if you had a mountain lodge on a lake, or if you lived in ice-cold Minnesota. But imagine if, nestled right here in the suburban New Jersey town of Maplewood, a short 30-minute train ride from New York City, you had your very own, private, backyard ice skating rink. For one local family, the Leibenspergers, that dream has become a reality – and it’s lasted for five years and counting. It all started as an inspired Christmas gift in 2014. “The idea came from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who live in Massachusetts,” says Mar- lowe Leibensperger. “Their kids play competitive ice hockey and they had built a rink for a few years, so I was intrigued and started to look into it.” Turns out, you can order any array of ice skating rink kits from Amazon, anything from a simple 10- foot by 20-foot rink for $35 to a roomy 20-foot by 40-foot rink for $385. Leibensperger chose one from NiceRink, which comes with brackets and a liner, along with instruc- tions. “The only other thing you need are sheets of plywood, cut to be the boards,” he says. A native of rural Pennsylvania, Leibensperger ac- tually didn’t grow up ice skating; he was more into soccer, basketball and baseball as a kid than hockey. He learned to ice skate as an adult, which was “defi- nitely more challenging to pick up.” It was his wife, Erin Konta, who grew up ice skating. “(She) has lots of stories of skating at Rockefeller Center around the holidays,” Leibensperger says. “This is one of the big reasons I wanted to get my kids started with skating when they were young.” Leibensperger’s kids are now 12, 11 and 8 – five years older than that first year when Santa left a big box and a picture of an ice skating rink under the tree. “I love having the rink because I can skate when- ever I want,” says Alison Leibensperger, 12. “And we have something to do each day,” adds her brother, Ryan, 11. Jack, the youngest, says he loves that he learned how to skate on “his rink.” Back Yard Bonus One Maplewood family takes recreational ice skating to the next level BY MALIA RULON HERMAN The Leibensperger children – Ali, 12; Ryan, 11, and Jack, 8 – enjoy playing hockey on their very own backyard ice skating rink, located right here in Maple- wood. Photo courtesy of the Leibensperger family.