Approximately one-hundred volunteers crowded into the Charlottetown Curling Club on Wednesday evening, for training night for the second annual The Dominion Curling Club Championship, Canada’s first-ever national curling club championship, being co-hosted by the Charlottetown and Cornwall curling clubs from November 23 to 28, with men’s and women’s curling teams from all provinces and territories competing.
An overview of the championship, and a rundown of the on and off ice activities for the curlers, which will include opening and closing ceremonies and banquets, pub crawls, and an East Coast night with the Jon Matthews band, was provided by event chair Leigh Armstrong, who then introduced Evan MacKinnon of the Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA), the recipients of all profits from the event (although admission is free, a number of fundraising activities including 50X50 draws, raffles, and a silent auction will take place).
Kate Arkilander from event sponsor The Dominion General Insurance Company then reviewed the volunteer handbook, and the volunteers then went into breakout sessions to receive an overview of their particular volunteer duties.
During the evening, Paul Cudmore, Executive Director of the PEI branch of the CPA had the opportunity to try out the Charlottetown Curling Club’s new wheelchair lift, donated by The Dominion, making the sport of curling more accessible. One of the guest speakers during The Dominion will be Paralympic wheelchair curling gold medallist Sonja Gaudet, from BC.
Photo: Paul Cudmore from the Canadian Paraplegic Association tries out new wheelchair lift