Red and white balloons, Canada flags, a beautiful quilt that featured a map of the country, music and of course, the time honoured tradition of curling, kicked off St. Paul’s celebrations of Canada 150, as the local curling club hosted a Canada 150 bonspiel this past weekend.
“For those of you that don’t know, this is a really big deal for us,” said Kyle Attansio, a director for the club, at a dinner on Saturday night of the bonspiel. He noted that the curling rink itself was built as one of the town’s Canada centennial projects back in the 1960s, and dedicated in 1967, making this year the 50th anniversary of the curling rink as well as the 150th birthday of Canada. “We were really thrilled to kick off the celebrations.”
Long-time members Floyd Kunnas and Paul Emile Boisvert referred to the history of the curling club in speeches given on the night.
Kunnas, who is a past president and the club manager, said that curling club members may not realize the magnitude and forethought that went into building the rink, adding that there are very, very few small towns that can boast six sheets of ice, and to have “six sheets of ice of this quality, this caliber, is tremendous.”
Boisvert came dressed as they would have done in the early days of the club, wearing a vintage sweater and holding a broom that he said came in handy not only to sweep the ice, but to brush away the snow that used to accumulate on the roof before the club built the current rink.
Men wore fedoras, never ball caps, while the sweater kept people warm in the cold and drafty former rink.
He added to laughter from the crowd, “The problem with these wool sweaters is they shrink - Mine has shrunk badly over the years.”
The first set of curling rocks appeared in St. Paul in 1938, said Boisvert, with George Buchanan and George Julian each having two rocks. The two Georges would play at the skating rink, which used to be by the St. Paul Abilities Network’s current location for Habitat laundry services, whenever the ice was free.
“Pretty soon, people started to watch that. It looked like a good game.”
When the town’s curling enthusiasts got to eight rocks, they could have two aside games, with each team throwing four rocks each. In the 1940s, the sport grew, with its own curling rink with two sheets of natural ice adjacent to the skating rink. More people wanted to curl then there was ice available. Several leagues were up and running, including business, farmer, men’s and women’s and high school leagues, and, since in those days, they curled 12 ends, it was difficult for everyone to get time to play. On top of that, the rink had building disadvantages, with frost building up on the beams and water dripping on the ice.
In 1963, then mayor Jules Van Brabant heard that there would be special funding for Canada’s centennial.
“Jules knew people wanted a curling rink, but they also wanted a swimming pool,” said Boisvert, thinking that the politically-minded Van Brabant figured that the federal government wouldn’t give money for a pool, but might give money for a curling rink and adjacent Recreation Centre.
While the club’s head honchos didn’t necessarily want six sheets of ice, Van Brabant sought and achieved funding for six sheets of artificial ice, and ran with it, said Boisvert. In 1964, curling started in the building and at a 1965 bonspiel, 90 men’s rinks were up and playing.
“It was a great time; we were very proud of it,” he said, adding that the curling culture was very different at the time, as a very social event, where people would get together at each other’s houses to eat and to drink.
In the 1970s, the club began to change; people got turned off by the fact curling became more competitive, and less social, said Boisvert.
“We had some very lean years, some very tough years,” he said, adding that one year, the club had to go to the town with its cap in hand to ask for a one-time bailout from a deficit position. However, the club has come back to its original strength, said Boisvert, with various leagues up and running, from juniors to seniors and everyone in between.
“If you want a good strong curling club, make sure you support the culture of curling, and the social aspect of curling,” said Boisvert.
Attansio thanked Boisvert for his words, but teased after the longer than expected speech, “I think I just found out what it’s like to curl 12 ends.”
While this is the 50th anniversary of the rink, Kunnas and Attansio made special mention of some of the people that have worked to keep the curling club going over the years, including the club’s past presidents and those that have served the executive, the volunteers and the several men and women who pitched in efforts to make sure the bonspiel came together in a short time, and also, to Gerald Looy, who has been the club’s icemaker for 35 years, but who the club will be losing in 2017, said Attansio. Tyson Wagner will step up to fill the role to keep maintaining the club’s “six great sheets of ice.”
After all the effort and the bonspiel wrapped up, four winners were named, including the winner of the A Final, the Gerry Jean rink, the B final, Joel Michaud rink, the C Final, Gerry Looy rink, and the D Final, the Cody Doucet rink.
Kunnas noted that it was great to see new curlers and younger curlers out at the event, with the D Final event composed of some of these younger people. For the last several years, the club has held strong and retained its memberships, and the success of the Canada 150 bonspiel was icing on the cake.
“It went over tremendously well,” Kunnas said, adding, “Everybody seemed to have a great time, and you can’t ask for more than that.”
