Shannon attended Whonnock Elementary Kindergarten and Glenwood Elementary in our community before her skating took her around the world. Shannon fondly recalls her early involvement in Baseball (as a pitcher), track and field, and basketball. Like many young children in Ridge Meadows, Shannon Allison Collins wanted to be a figure skater. She was just three years old when she learned to skate with the Maple Ridge Figure Skating Club with then coach Christine McBeth.
And boy did she learn to skate. Shannon became one of the best ever to come out of the Maple Ridge club, spending five years with the Canadian national team and capturing the Canadian novice championship, junior silver, and senior bronze. Internationally, she won bronze at the junior worlds and was an alternate on Canada's 1988 Olympic and world teams. Outside the competitive rink, she dazzled audiences as she toured with Champions on Ice and performed in a Kurt Browning TV special. Now an elementary school teacher, she also helps aspiring skaters as a freelance skating coach.