Happy New Year and I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season.

As you will read elsewhere in this issue, the championships season is well underway with the 2024 BC U18 and Mixed Doubles Championships held together for the first time at Victoria Curling Club in the last week of December. It was great to see all 8 sheets in action and a crowd of spectators following every game. The club looks great with new cameras covering every house. Thanks to all the volunteers and staff who spent their Christmas break making sure all 20 MD and 17 U18 teams had a great competition. We look forward to following the champions (as well as the U18 Girls runners up) at the 2024 Canadian Championships.

As the second half of the 2023-24 curling season begins to unfold, I encourage you to consider making an additional financial contribution to your curling club or other curling facilities in need across the province. Curling facility upgrade and renewal has been identified by Curl BC’s Board of Governors as the number one challenge facing curling in the province. While the number of regular curlers has risen back up above pre-COVID levels, the number of curling facilities has remained static or declined in some areas.

Here are some options for providing your support and receiving a tax receipt for your contribution: FIND A PROJECT – Sport BC. As mentioned in a recent Curling Connection, if you don’t see your curling facility on this list and would like to get a BC Amateur Sport Fund project established for your club, please contact me and we can work with Sport BC to get this done fairly quickly.

All the best for 2024 both on and off the ice.

Scott Braley
CEO, Curl BC

January, 2024