Planning for Junior Curling Championship in Rivers

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By Les Wedderburn

Committee President

Curling at Rivers Curling Club has come to an end for the season, but members of the club have been busy planning for next year’s Manitoba Canola Growers provincial junior curling championships Jan. 6-11, 2016. 

Sixteen junior men and 16 junior women teams will come to Rivers to partake in the provincial playoffs. There has already been a berth awarded to both a men’s and women’s team to attend. Curling fans will be excited to hear that former Canadian champion, Matt Dunstone, will be vying for another provincial championship, after winning the Petersfield early berth weekend at the end of March.  

A general meeting on March 24 confirmed what plans are in place so far and what else needs to be done. This is a community event, not just a curling club event. We hope to have a successful event so we can help contribute to Riverdale Community Centre. 

Most of the committee chair positions have been filled by very enthusiastic volunteers. We still have a few jobs that are needing to be filled in order for the event to proceed smoothly. 

Norman Short agreed to to take phone inquiries and create a volunteer list for these provincials. Anyone who wishes to volunteer can call Norm at 204-328-7107 or drop him an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . You may wish to volunteer for a certain job or perhaps you would be willing to work at any of the positions we have available. Norm can tell you what committees we have and what might interest you. Only a few jobs require training prior to the event; those are the positions of timekeeper and bartender. We will train anyone who is wanting to time keep; if you are interested in working as a bartender, a responsible serving online course must be completed prior to the event.

A few of the committees we have are the ice caretakers team (preparing and helping with the curling surfaces), timekeepers for each curling game, canteen, door and registrations, facility committee (setting up, cleaning and first aid volunteers), advertising/sponsorship, 50/50 and a float committee (for entries to Rivers and Brandon Santa Claus parades). We were very fortunate to have hosted the 2007 junior men’s provincials in our old curling rink. We gained so much experience and we can now draw on that experience to make this an event that will put Rivers on the map! This will be the first time that a junior provincial event will be held on skating arena ice, so we have the seating to accommodate many fans!

If you are interested in a certain committee, or just want to be able to help out in any capacity, please contact Norm.