First, let me apologize for not posting in a while. It's the off-season!! So posting may be pretty infrequent. In August it will probably pick up again, since the season will be starting for the husband and I with a trip to Curling Camp in Canada. (More on that later in the summer.)
This post is about Arena Curling. The husband got a letter in the mail from the Evergreen Curling Club in Portland, Oregon. They are soliciting donations for their new curling club, so they can curl on dedicated curling ice. Right now, and for the past 9 years, they curl on Arena Ice. For those of you that have not seen this before, clubs can rent ice time at a local hockey arena and curl on the hockey ice. As you can imagine, this comes with a whole host of problems. Evergreens letter highlights some of these problems: rental rates are expensive and the scheduling is controlled by the arena, the ice is consistently poor quality, there is nowhere for people to meet before or after a game and socialize together, a ton of work has to go into setting everything up before a night of curling can even happen, plus many more issues.
Evergreens letter mentions that they have decided to lease empty warehouse space and convert it to a curling club. They note that this is really the cheapest option, and through various fundraising options they hope to raise $300,000. If you want that warm and fuzzy feeling, send a donation! I'm sure they would really appreciate it.
Receiving their letter in the mail made me think how lucky and fortunate we are in Rochester to have dedicated curling ice. I remember how excited the husband and I were when we started curling, and I remember how awesome we thought it was that we could curl almost any night of the week. If we had to curl on Arena ice - would we have that same level of excitement? It's hard to say. Would I have stuck it out and worked through some of my bad habits if I could only curl once a week and on wonky ice?? It would have been pretty hard to do it.
So far, curling has become a big part of our lives. And it is taking us to places we have never been before. Along the way, we have met some REALLY great people. I always like to attribute this to our home ice and the opportunities it has given us to further our game.
Thanks for the support. We are looking forward to joining you in the privileged ranks of the dedicated ice curlers. We're on our way!
ReplyDeleteEvergreen Curling Club Curler
You ARE lucky and fortunate to have dedicated curling ice in Rochester. Keep enjoying it, and help out a poor arena curler when you can.
ReplyDeleteWith the cheaper leased space model, starting with Columbus Curling Club and now followed by Evergreen, more and more arena clubs can move to dedicated ice faster with less money.
CurlGirl,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the blog. I'd also like to point out that a dedicated facility will provide access to curling ice 7 days a week - unlike what we have now (2 evenings per week). This will give us the opportunity to host many more leagues, for juniors, seniors and wheelchair curlers, to name a few. How great that will be!
Good curling!
To Evergreen Curlers,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, and thanks for the posts. I enjoy reading all the Dedicated in a Year plans/blog posts you have on your website. It is both interesting and exciting to see what you have to do. I look forward to reading more as you get closer to making your dream come true.