The United States Women’s Curling Association Friendship Curling Tour is visiting B.C. They curled at three island clubs, then traveled to the lower mainland on Sunday, Nov.4 to visit and play at some lower mainland clubs winding up their tour on Nov. 11.
One of the island clubs chosen as part of the tour was the Cowichan Rocks Curling Club in Lake Cowichan. Kathy MacKenzie, the 2012 US WCA Friendship Tour coordinator, said “We are coming to Lake Cowichan because Cowichan Rocks has a reputation for hosting.”
MacKenzie says that the objective of the tour is to build friendships for both the visiting curlers and their hosts as well as to experience our B.C. curlers and our curling club’s hospitality. In three years time our B.C. ladies will be invited to the U.S. for a return curling tour where they will be hosted for a two-week period.
Cowichan Valley curlers will be hosting ladies from New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New England, and Washington. Curling on the Canadian side will be Cowichan Valley curlers: Maria Elzinga, Tricia Mayea, Belinda Waller, Morreen Coulter, Mara Burnstein, Kari Mckinley, Barb Foster, Carol Shewchuk, Laurie Johnson, Lynn Post, Michelle Weir, Tricia Gorski, Karen Neuffer, Jean Atkinson, Shaunne Rowbottom and Kelly Feltrin.
The event was held in the Cowichan Rocks facility on Friday, Nov. 2, beginning with dinner followed by one game of curling — US against Canada — and a social evening which included entertainment provided by the visitors. Billeting hosts then took their guests home with them for the night, fed them breakfast and returned them in time for the next leg of their journey to visit Nanaimo.
— submitted by
Linda Blatchford, manager ,
Cowichan Lake Recreation