Photo courtesy Everything GP Staff

By Erika Rolling

Curling

Grande Prairie’s Curling Centre named ‘The Club of the Year’

Jun 8, 2022 | 11:06 AM

Alberta Curling has awarded the Grande Prairie Curling Centre with the designation of ‘the Club of the Year’ for 2022.

The club’s facility has eight sheets of ice maintained by a world-level ice maker, lounge, games room and dining.

President of the Curling Centre, Keri Bruce said in a news release: “The Board, staff, the city and all our volunteers should be congratulated for this huge accomplishment. I am so proud to be part of this amazing organization and cannot wait to watch our curling centre continue to grow.”

Executive Director Colin Griffith says it’s a mystery who nominated the centre for ‘The Club of the Year.’

“While clubs can self-nominate for this award… we did not. But somebody nominated us, we are not sure who it was and we are very pleased with the fact that someone did witness the improvements that we have brought to the club.”

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Griffith says the club is “elated with the recognition.”

Being awarded ‘the Club of the Year’, he says “reflects the fact that Grande Prairie is always renowned and has a solid reputation as one of the major and best places to host major curling events.”

Grande Prairie recently hosted the first-ever combined Men’s and Women’s Provincial Championship in January 2022. The city will also be host to the Master Men’s and Women’s Provincials, U15 Junior Boys and Girls Provincials as well as several other Provincial Qualifier events this coming year.

Griffith says after being in lockdowns; “there’s a sense of renewal that people can come out and be active and start socializing to a higher degree… and we think that our curling sport is one of the fundamentals to renewing the community to be active again, in both entertainment and in sport.”

The Curling Centre’s Board presented its 5-Year Vision to City Council on May 24, sharing how it has been operating at a deficit for two decades and was unable to meet operational costs over Covid-19’s pandemic.

The 5-Year Vision sees the facility being utilized year-round and becoming more than just a curling rink and is interested in becoming a multi-sports centre.

“We are hoping to reach an agreement in how we (City and Curling Centre) are going to cooperate and work together to convert this facility into year-round use and take advantage of the excellent venue that we have,” Griffith says.

Sexsmith’s Curling Club was ‘the Club of the Year’ in 2021. “When it comes to looking at what we are doing up here through a provincial lens, that we are doing some very, very positive things for our overall communities,” he says.