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It's not for a pickup game of hockey or even to do some ice fishing. It's on the job training.
For about the past decade, the firefighters and guests from other emergency agencies learn or take a refresher course in ice rescue techniques to use whenever self rescue is not an option, such as dealing with an unconscious victim.
Training for working in cold water and ice rescue was given an extra push in 2000, when two Monticello men died after falling through the ice near Bluewater Park.
"We've invited some different departments," said Capt. Galen Logan on this year's training on Friday.
"Originally, it was just going to be us," he said. "We talked to the DNR. They had some new guys that they wanted trained."
The DNR in turn told the Kentland Fire Department, whose own water rescue abilities had been tapped thanks to this winter's flooding.
"A couple of months ago, we got involved in an ice rescue up at Willow Slough (Fish and Wildlife Area)," said Jamie Wirtz, a firefighter/EMT for Kentland. "It was after that the chief and I got together and decided that it was something we needed to bring to our department."
Since then, the department has been involved in a swift water rescue of a motorist whose truck had washed into a flooded ditch and the recovery of a car from a flooded quarry near Kentland.
Three Monon residents were found dead in the car, which authorities believe plunged into the quarry after missing a stop sign in dense fog.
"We've been in the water more this year than we've ever been," said Wirtz.
"We're in the process, the very initial stages, of starting an aquatics rescue team, which will be swift water, ice and dive in Kentland," said Vince Lowe, the department's assistant chief. "This (training) is just the beginning of it."
The department already has some ice suits, and shares dry suits with the local police department, he said.
The volunteer department counts about 20 members, and like others operating on a limited budget, shares training with other agencies when possible.
"(Monticello has) worked with us before on some other things," said Lowe. "It's just awesome to have guys like this who will spend their time to train the smaller departments like us, work with us and give us the training we need."
Beginning with classroom instruction on types of ice and ice rescue sequences, safety and equipment at the fire department, the class moved on to a skills practice on the ice at Dodge Camp near Monticello City Park.
Each trainee takes turns being victim, rescuer and one link in the human chain on shore that pulls them both to safety.
During the sessions, rescuers take turns donning special cold water immersion suits to ward off hypothermia and provide an additional 50 pounds of buoyancy, about twice that of a standard life jacket.
"There's always high tech equipment, the (rescue) sleds and good stuff like that, but it's nice to be able to come out here and see what you can do with a couple of karibeeners and a rope," said Lowe. "You get the same job done."
Lowe, Wirtz, and fellow Kentland firefighters Jacob Shufflebarger and Matt Wittenborn plan on taking what they learned in Monticello on Friday back home, there to hold an ice rescue familiarization class with other area departments.
"When it comes down to it, we all have to help each other out," said Wirtz. "There can't be any boundaries. Everybody's got to come together as a team and work together."

 Doug Howard