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.
