‘This is what united us’

An effort to restore a community roller hockey rink is gaining momentum, as residents who grew up skating there want to bring it back from its state of disrepair and upgrade it to a year-round facility in honor of a fallen friend.

Built in 2001, the roller hockey rink at Shrub Oak Memorial Park was once a cornerstone of the community—a place where friendships formed, relationships grew, and an entire generation of Yorktown residents learned the game. Now, decades later, many of those same players have become parents, hoping to bring their own children back to where it all began.

For some, that return came last month, when community members gathered at the rink for a memorial honoring Joey Pagliaro, a Yorktown native, beloved friend, and player who died in a motorcycle accident in Colorado Springs at age 37 this past February.

What they saw was disheartening.

The rink had fallen into ruin, a stark contrast to its former place at the heart of the town and the decades of effort and advocacy their parents once poured into building it.

That moment became a turning point for Cassandra Vazquez, her husband Frank, Matt Lauria, and other community members. In the midst of grief and reflection, they began channeling old memories—and a deep sense of loss—into a push for renewal, hoping to honor Pagliaro’s legacy while preserving the space for future generations.

With support from Pagliaro’s family, the group is now working with the town to restore the rink, including repairing the boards and playing surface, raising funds for a memorial scoreboard, and pursuing a formal dedication as the Joseph R. Pagliaro Memorial Rink.

As of Monday, April 20, a change.org petition has reached nearly 200 signatures and continues to grow in support of these efforts.

“I see how much hockey gave to my husband and his friends,” Cassandra said. “A lot of those people, he still talks to today and sees today.”

She added that “coming back now, I want my kids to be able to play on this” and said “I don’t know if I’d be comfortable” having her young boys, Ace and Rocco, skate at the rink in its current state of disrepair.

Frank Vazquez said the rink was one of the reasons his parents chose to move to Mohegan Lake from Peekskill.

He and Cassandra were high school sweethearts. They met at Kennedy Catholic, but and their relationship truly blossomed when they spent time together at the rink, a place that holds with some of their earliest shared memories.

For his part, Lauria calls time spent at the rink “a core memory” of his youth—which makes restoring from its current broken down state so motivating.

Sundays or the weeknights multiple times a week, he and his brother Alex would lace up and play alongside Frank and Joey. And while he and the friends he made on the rink would grow up and move on, the memories stuck.

“This is what united us,” Lauria said.

For him, it’s all coming full circle; he feels called to restore it to a place for another generation to make memories.

“This was my parents fight 30 years ago,” he said, reflecting on their push to have a rink built. “They wanted a place for their kids “to grow, mature, have fun—play a sport that we all love.”

“It’s our fight now—my version, my time to restore it,” he said, adding that it can be there for “our kids and kids after our kids.”

For Lauria and others, the rink was never just a facility—it was a shared upbringing, a daily gathering place, and a backdrop for lifelong friendships. Their goal is to revitalize the rink into a safe, premier space where local youth can play hockey close to home.

“If it becomes a year-round facility, it obviously grows the sport,” Lauria said. “But it provides the community another outlet. Not just a sporting place. It’s a place for kids to gather, just have fun.”

The rink was originally opened in 2001 through a partnership between the town and local families who saw the need for a youth outlet. Now, the same community is asking for the opportunity to restore that original vision—this time in Pagliaro’s memory.

But a quarter century after opening, the facility requires significant repair. The group, known as Friends of the Shrub Oak Memorial Park Roller Rink, is advocating for a public-private partnership to bring it back to full potential.

Vazquez said organizers plan to establish a dedicated fund through a 501(c)(3) to manage donations and grants for the project.

The first phase of restoration would include professional resurfacing for street and roller hockey.

The rink is currently also used for box lacrosse in the fall, and if it remains a roller hockey facility, Lauria said they would like to continue that shared use so the space remains active year-round for Yorktown’s youth.

At its core, the effort is about more than infrastructure.

Hockey is a unique sport, Lauria said, and it’s about overcoming adversity, representing something bigger than yourself. And that’s how the group of friends hoping to bring the rink to its former glory see their mission.

“Hockey teaches you at a very young age that you are now apart of something bigger than yourself,” Lauria said. “It builds lifelong friendships and bonds that are never forgotten.”

And having the restored rink named after Joey Pagliaro—a friend who embodied that spirit gives their effort even more meaning.