Our club of the month for September is the Sparwood Curling Club!

Sparwood Curling Club is a part of a multi-recreation facility in the town of Sparwood in the East Kootenay region of BC. Sparwood houses approximately 4000 people. Throughout the past few years, membership at the Club has remained steady at between 80-100 people. The Club is run exclusively by volunteers, from the icemakers, to the bartenders in the lounge.

Currently the Club hosts 4 leagues per week: a drop-in league, ladies league, open league and mixed league. Junior curling runs twice a week after school, with extra practices thrown in before any competitions. Except for juniors, each league has a volunteer bartender to host the social after the games. The Club pays for individuals to complete their Serving It Right Certificates to enable them to legally bartend. This option came about because our long-standing bartender of 20 years was no longer able to perform this task.

Irene Endicott was 89 years young when medical issues prevented her from continuing this position. Irene absolutely loved volunteering for the Curling Club and would tell anyone she met that she still worked and that’s what kept her young. She would bartend, sell raffle tickets and sit in the mall selling Lions’ Bingo tickets for “her” Club. The bar in the lounge was aptly named “Mum’s Pub” in honour of her. In fact on her last night as bartender, the paramedics had to be called to pick her up and she offered them a drink before they carted her off!

In the past 2 years, the number of newcomers to our Club has exploded. TECK Resources LTD began hosting leadership days there, where between 12-65 people would have a work session, then learn to curl. 6 sessions in each season were held, bringing over 500 newcomers to the game of curling. This included more than 100 international co-op students who were thrilled to learn this new game. Many teachers from the local elementary school also brought their students to learn to curl, resulting in more junior members joining than we’ve had for many years. In the past 2 years, 4 members of our juniors have joined with other East Kootenay teams to enter the BC Winter Games. 2 of our boys came home with medals from the skills competition this year: a gold and a silver! This past year, we set up a scholarship for a curler moving on to post secondary education. We also donate all of our empties from the lounge to a local lady who cleans and crushes them and donates all the funds to Angel Flight, a free medical flight which transports patients between Cranbrook and Kelowna.

In the past year, 3 Learn-to-Curl Fun Nights were held. Each of these nights had a special theme- Name that Tune, Curling Trivia and an Escape Room as well as curling instruction. Many new curlers also came out to these nights. To wrap up the season, a special member’s night was held where 8 groups participated in a “Wing-Off”. The winner walked away with a new smoker. The band The Reluctants performed for members and guests to dance the night away.

2025 will be the 50th anniversary of the Sparwood Curling Club. Plans are in the works to make it their best year yet!

Visit their website for more information.