The $3 million Olympic-size rink will offer individual and family recreational skating, lessons in figure and speed skating and hockey, figure skating clubs and hockey leagues.
"It will bring ice skating to Franklin County and the whole Cumberland Valley. We're going to develop comprehensive programs for everyone from tots to adults," Everett said.
She has recruited enough hockey coaches for the leagues, but finding qualified figure skating coaches has been more difficult.
If the shortage persists, she will fill the ranks with teachers she trains herself, she said.
Everett, a native of Philadelphia, started taking skating lessons when she was 5, along with her sister and brother. She started skating seriously when she was 7 and became a professional teacher at age 17.
Her brother and sister went on to join the 1970 U.S. figure skating team.
"I wanted to be a teaching professional rather than a show skater," she said.
Everett trained several world-class skaters in the United States and abroad. Her students included Debbie Cottrill, a 1981 British champion, and Elizabeth Manley, a Canadian champion.
She stopped teaching to stay home with her son, now 4. Her husband works in Hagerstown.
Everett returned to the profession earlier this year when she worked briefly for the Hagerstown Ice and Sports Complex before taking the Waynesboro job.
An assistant director will start in about two weeks, Everett said.
Carol Henicle, executive director of the Greater Waynesboro Chamber of Commerce, said ground was broken in June for the rink at the intersection of Polktown Road and Pa. 16. It got its start with a $500,000 bequest from the estate of Doris I. Billow, a former Waynesboro area school teacher.
The state put up a $250,000 grant and Cumberland Valley on Ice, the nonprofit agency that will run the rink, is collecting $500,000 in donations toward the total cost. Henicle said CVOI has collected about $480,000 so far.
The rest of the money, about $1.6 million, is being borrowed from local banks to be repaid with proceeds from the rink, she said.
