CARSTAIRS - The annual Carstairs junior curling bonspiel was held on March 15, with 16 teams entered.
The curlers competing ranged in age from 9-18, and came from local communities including Didsbury, Olds, Innisfail, Irricana, Cochrane and Airdrie.
“It is one of the busiest days at the curling club, and we would like to thank all our supporters and sponsors,” said Paula Richardson, who ran the junior curling program this season.
Supporters included ArKton Steel, which donates a pizza lunch for all our juniors, the Elks, who operated a concession that was kept busy by the spectators and curlers.
“It is the first time since COVID we were able to have a fully functioning concession and we truly appreciate all the support the Elks provide to junior curling,” she said.
“We had lots of community donations at our raffle table, which is a fundraiser for junior curling.”
This season Didsbury junior curling’s unfortunate situation with the closure of the Didsbury arena (due to ice machine failure) was a blessing in disguise for the Carstairs Juniors, she said.
“We had most of the Didsbury juniors join us for curling Wednesdays after school starting in January and ending March 19,” she said.
“It was great to have extra juniors on the ice to coach and have some friendly competition with this winter.”
Carstairs coaches Bob Jochems, Charlie Van Arnam and Paula Richardson really enjoyed coaching this season, she said.
“We also really appreciated all the Didsbury parents volunteering at our Carstairs Junior Bonspiel, we could not have done it without them,” she said.
“We look forward to continuing to nurture this relationship between Carstairs and Didsbury junior curling in hopes of growing the sport in Mountain View County.”
