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Curl BC presents awards to Quesnel Curling Centre and Barkerville Historic Town and Park

The presentation took place during the St. Patrick’s Day Bonspiel
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Barkerville Historic Town and Park CEO Ed Coleman accepts the 2019 Sponsor Award from Curl BC’s Member Services Manager Melissa Sim during the Quesnel Curling Centre’s St. Patrick’s Day Open Bonspiel on March 15. (Tracey Roberts - Quesnel Cariboo Observer)

Curl BC presented two awards to local organizations during the Quesnel Curling Centre’s St Patrick’s Day Bonspiel March 13-15.

The first award, 2019 Curling Centre of the Year, was presented to the Quesnel Curling Centre. According to the Curl BC guidelines, the award is presented to a facility that has “generously contributed to the sport of curling through hosting multiple competitions or events, either over the past year or over multiple years — has developed or operated outstanding curling programs — had multiple teams experience success at the provincial, national or international event in the past curling season and has demonstrated support for those teams as they advanced.”

Quesnel Curling Club manager Dave Plant says it is a great honour for the club and the city to win the award, especially after all the hard work that was put in by the community during and leading up to the 2019 B.C. Men’s and Women’s Provincial Curling Championships.

“To win the Curling Centre of the Year award means a lot to us here in Quesnel, especially after hosting the first combined men’s and women’s provincial championships, and to have 150 volunteers from our club take part in that event means a lot to our club,” said Plant. “It just goes to show that when everybody gets together, our club is very strong, and we pulled it off with flying stars.”

Curl BC says the club did “an outstanding job” planning and preparing for the 2019 B.C. Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships, particularly considering this was the first time the events had been combined.

“The members of Quesnel Curling Centre brought together the community, not only with the number of volunteers they recruited, but also by working closely with the municipality and local businesses,” Curl BC notes on its website. “During January and February, you could not go anywhere in Quesnel without seeing a sign about the event.”

The second award, the 2019 Sponsor of the Year Award, was presented to Barkerville Historic Town and Park. The award recognizes the generosity of a sponsor towards the sport of curling, whether in a single or series of events, as a part of a single program or over the course of multiple years.

Plant acknowledged that without the many corporate sponsors who were involved in making the provincial championship possible, it would not have been such a success.

“When we set out to put on the provincials event, we did feel that the community would be behind us, but we had no idea at how strong the support would be,” he said. “When we started knocking on doors for corporate sponsorship, I really don’t think anyone said no to us to be honest. I mean, I could mention 30 companies off the top of my head that were there for us, and Barkerville was a huge part of that.”

In announcing the award winners, Curl BC noted that as a presenting sponsor of the 2019 B.C. Men’s Curling Championship, Barkerville embraced the event.

“The historic park provided entertainment at the opening ceremonies and banquet and placed their actors at a display location over the course of the week,” according to Curl BC’s website. “The actors were also in the stands for the gold nugget raffle prize draw. They invested a lot of resources helping to make the event fun for all.”

READ MORE: Community support in Quesnel amazes those involved in curling provincials