Above: Stick League: Leo Rivera, Pearl Reid
Luckily, the Oliver Curling Club was still able to get together last weekend to celebrate another awesome season at the annual Windup Dinner. We also celebrated our volunteers who made it all happen.
This year was busier than ever with new leagues, new events and lots of new curlers! We had 8 leagues with over 250 curlers, including 23 youth in our after-school Junior League and 12 enthusiastic curlers in Special Olympics. Our new Stick League filled up quickly with brand new and experienced curlers, as well as curlers who came back to the game after many years away.
More than 40 eager beginners got to try out curling in our free curling intros, Novice League and many free practice sessions with club curlers on hand to help out. Of those beginners, 27 joined leagues and are on their way to becoming great curlers! We’ll have many more opportunities to learn how to curl next season too – check out our website (eastlinkcurlingcentre.ca) in the fall and join the fun.
We also held a Family Fun event every month, with about 140 kids, parents and grandparents in total. Almost 200 students from Oliver, OK Falls and Tuc El Nuit Elementary Schools came to learn how to curl in our School Program. We also took floor curling to local elementary schools by partnering with the Rocks & Rings program. On top of all that, we hosted 6 bonspiels and new social events like Rebel Luv and Music Bingo that kept the place jumping!
And we curled a lot too! All the winning league teams were announced at the Windup Dinner:
Day League 1st half: John Surovy (skip), Fernando Anjos (skip), Charlie Blaschuk, Barb Barley, Fred Nahornoff
Day League 2nd half (Monday): Fernando Anjos (skip), Bryan Coles, Innis Harvey, Kathy Lausman
Day League 2nd half (Wednesday): Fernando Anjos (skip), Donald Bartsch, Rick Martin, Pat Martin
Corporate League: Edward Jones team with Leo Rivera (skip), Brian Pawluk, Earl Zinger, Dave McCombe, David Machial
Ladies League 1st half & 2nd half: Diane Tetreault (skip), Pat Batchelor, Linda Schroter, Tanya Walsh
Mixed League 1st half: Sylvia Lowe (skip), Norm Card, Colleen McCombe, Dave Wilson, Tony Murray
Mixed League 2nd half: Diane Tetreault (skip), Fernando Anjos, Pat Batchelor, Bill Ford
Men’s League: Leo Rivera (skip), Earl Zinger, Randy Gushulak, David Machial
All this activity was possible because of the hard work of all our amazing volunteers. They contributed more than 6500 hours of their time to organize leagues and events, cook and help out in the kitchen, clean up, coach, and so much more. Our huge thanks to everyone who helped out this year. While we couldn’t individually recognize every volunteer, we held volunteer prize draws to show our appreciation with gift cards from some of our sponsors, Buy-Low Foods, Canadian Tire and Shoppers Drug Mart.
Next season is going to be even more exciting as we celebrate the Oliver Curling Club’s 50th Anniversary. Watch out for news of all the great events we’re planning – and see you there!
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