FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Fort St. John Curling Club is looking to fully utilize its facility within the next five years as membership has slowly started to increase after pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Ellejay Smith, vice president of the club, provided council with an update on Monday and mentioned the club’s goals for this year, such as working towards bringing back eight sheets of ice.
In 2020, the curling club entered a partnership to allow the Fort St. John Soccer Club to rent half of its facility for five years. Since then, only four sheets of ice have been used, which will continue until the agreement between the two organizations is up.
Smith said this is the long-term goal as membership is slowly growing but not at a level to fill the entire facility with curlers.
Further discussions with the soccer club are expected to take place in the future, although Smith said they should be aware of the organization’s plans.
“That is what we started off is with the eight sheets, and we’re seeing that growth, and we want to be able to have that facility as specifically a curling facility,” said Smith.
The curling club had around 100 members compete last season, mainly due to an increase in senior and junior curlers. The ladies’ league saw a slight increase since 2020, while there was a small decrease in the men’s and mixed leagues. However, the continued rise in seniors and the huge increase in youth during the 2022/2023 season have kept the club hopeful moving into next season.
Smith said the shift in membership was due to the restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Coming back to a full year with no restrictions last year, we had quite a few of our members come back, as well as new teams, which is really great to see. And our season now is already looking promising, with an increase in membership but also a younger demographic, which is what we were hoping for.”
Other goals the club has for this season include continuing to increase membership, maintaining and developing its junior program, and introducing curling to schools in hopes of having the sport added to the physical education curriculum in the future.
For its facility, the club wants to continue to increase revenue through events, sponsorships, league bonspiels, and its vendors.
The Fort St. John Curling Club has its free Learn to Curl event on September 23rd, although a time has not yet been finalized.
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