ARLINGTON, Va. — (AP) — A figure skating tribute will take place in Washington, D.C., in early March to support victims of the midair collision and crash outside Ronald Reagan International Airport.
Organizers on Wednesday announced the "Legacy on Ice" benefit event scheduled for March 2 at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, home of the NBA's Wizards and NHL's Washington Capitals. Twenty-eight members of the figure skating community were among the 67 people killed when an Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight and crashed into the Potomac River on Jan. 29.
“This is a platform to be able to let people emote,” Monumental Sports & Entertainment chairman and CEO Ted Leonsis said on a video call with reporters. “This has struck so many different people around Washington, D.C., in a very, very emotional way. We really want to make a platform for the entire extended community to come together.”
Figure skating was so prominently connected to the tragedy because many aboard had just been to a development camp after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. Monumental, U.S. Figure Skating, DC Fire & EMS Foundation and the Greater Washington Community Foundation are putting on the tribute.
“We’re just very grateful to (executive producer Michael Burg) and Ted and everyone at Monumental to get this off the ground,” U.S. Figure Skating interim CEO Samuel Auxier said. “It certainly focuses our entire skating community on the recovery process, and this will be a real highlight of getting this moving forward.”
The event is set to be co-hosted by 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano and involve performances by 2024 world champion Ilia Malinin, two-time U.S. champion Amber Glenn and some of the most recognizable members of the sport, including Tara Lipinski, Johnny Weir, Kristi Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton. Members of the Skating Club of Boston and from those in Northern Virginia and Washington, organizations who were affected, will also take part.
Burg, who has been connected to figure skating in the past along with benefits for victims of the Southern California fires, said, "It just triggered within me, my gosh, what happened in a different way in LA is now happening in the skating world and overall everybody impacted by this plane crash, and we needed to do something."
Proceeds from the two-hour show will go to the U.S. Figure Skating Family Support Fund, Greater Washington Community Foundation’s DCA Together Relief Fund and DC Fire & EMS Foundation.
“I feel like it will be cathartic for the first responders to be there to see more about the lives about the people they tried to save and just to interact with their families,” said Amy Mauro, DC Fire and EMS Foundation's executive director.
The event is being paid for by in-kind donations, and much is being done at cost with the aim of making it a fundraiser, as well as a community gathering.
"We all need a lot of support right now," Leonsis said. “I hope we can raise a lot of money. At the end of the day, we not only want to be able to collectively bring all of the voices of all of the people affected, but we need to be able to raise a lot of dollars to help ease some of the pain.”
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This story has been corrected to update the number of members of the figure skating community killed to 28 from the initial estimate of 14.
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