Canada wins the Silver at the International Tankard Curling Bonspeil hosted in Lake Cowichan by the Cowichan Rocks Curling Club and Cowichan Lake Recreation on March 9.
In this case Silver is number one because it’s the colour of the International Tankard that will remain in Canada for another year.
Canada beat the US teams 13-5. The International Tankard trophy was presented to 78-year-old Ray Fields, from Esquimalt, one of the oldest players in the Bonspiel.
The exchange of ideas, and meeting and making friendships, is the main reason to attend this event.
The Friday night social get-together, the Saturday night banquet to the closing ceremonies on Sunday, the volunteers make and renew friendships made through the sport of curling.
“The border between the US and Canada doesn’t matter to them, we are curlers.” said April Gale-Seixeiro, rep for Washington State, at the closing ceremonies of the International Tankard on Sunday.
Linda Blachford, manager of Cowichan Lake Recreation, says she now has all sorts of information to help increase user-ship of the curling rink.
Ideas like where to get grants to build ramps for the disabled players that will allow the older participants to continue to play the game or grants to encourage junior curling.
“It’s kids like 5-year-old Jaxon Zalinko, who will keep curling popular in to the future.” remarked Blatchford.
That is the message the volunteer participants will take back to their curling clubs that will help increase the popularity of the sport with the younger people in their communities.